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This article tracks a talk the author gave at Helsinki Arbitration Day 2015.The author notes that the issue of efficiency in international arbitration is often misunderstood to be a matter of time and cost, when it is really a question of the relationship between time, cost, and quality. Anyone who thinks that arbitration can be fast, cheap and good should think again. While parties and their counsel and arbitral institutions can help to reduce time and cost, it ultimately falls to the arbitrator to make arbitration more efficient. But any effort to increase efficiency amounts to nothing more than tinkering with a well-oiled prosperity machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the reversed district court decision on the case of T. Co Metals LLC v. Dempsey Pipe and Supply Inc. by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. It notes that the reversed case was an amended final award on the grounds that the arbitrator exceeded his power to correct his award. It mentions the decision of the Second Circuit that permits arbitrators to give themselves power to reconsider the decision they made in final awards.