Pendulum Arbitration, also known as ‘final offer arbitration’ or ‘baseball arbitration’, means an arbitration where the parties to the dispute submit a draft award, either simultaneously or in a sealed envelope, to the arbitrator who will prepare the final award on the basis of the selected draft award, without making any amendment.

Since the selected draft award has to be accepted in its entirety, the parties are compelled to be moderate and reasonable while drafting the award in order to increase its acceptability. Consequently, this affects the respective party’s advocacy since all the arguments advocating for extreme stances are discarded and not unnecessarily fleshed out on the touchstone of the ‘no stone unturned’ principle, thereby ensuring that the proceedings are succinct.

Additionally, it simplifies the role of the arbitrator as the final award has to be prepared on the basis of the selected draft award in contrast to a conventional arbitration where the award has to be prepared from scratch after evaluating every argument and consideration. Consequently, the time between conclusion of the hearing and delivery of the award is drastically reduced.