Canons are subject to laws and professional responsibility principles; choice or lawA. These Canons are subject to applicable constitutional, statutory, decisional or administrative rules, State or federal, and when these conflict with these Canons, the Canon provision shall be deemed superseded if it is not possible to give effect to the rule and these Canons.B. These Canons and other ethics or similar rules which may apply to an arbitrator in any other capacity e.g., as a professional, shall be read in pari materia, giving effect to these Canons and the ethics rules if possible. If an arbitrator is subject to other arbitrator ethics rules, e.g., the ABA-AAA Code of Ethics for Arbitrators in Commercial Disputes, and these Canons, these Canons shall govern if there is a conflict of standards; provided however, that the principle of primacy in Canon VIII.B shall not apply to disclosure principles in Canon II.D and payment principles in Canon VI.D(2).C. These Canons apply to arbitrations in North Carolina, or arbitrations administered by a court in North Carolina, to arbitrations where the parties choose North Carolina law exclusive of conflict of laws principles in the contract or other agreement, or where it is determined that North Carolina law exclusive of conflict of laws principles applies, regardless of where the arbitration is conducted.Comment
Canon VIII is not part of the Code. However, given the possibility of conflicting rules of court, professional responsibility rules, legislation or constitutional principles, statement of the obvious in Canon VIII.A-B seems appropriate. Canon VIII.B provides that if an arbitrator is subject to professional or other ethics rules because of that arbitrator's status as, e.g., a lawyer, these Canons and the professional ethics rules shall be read in pari materia, giving effect to both if possible.
Rule 8.5 suggested Canon VIII.C, which is intended to cover court-annexed arbitrations, arbitrations where a court has appointed an arbitrator pursuant to, e.g., the Uniform Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-567.4, and arbitrations where parties have chosen North Carolina law or where North Carolina law, exclusive of conflict of laws principles, applies. This means that parties and the arbitrator cannot step across a state line and escape these principles.