Do Judges Have To Write Their Opinions Themselves?

From the Kluwer Arbitration blog, there is an interesting challenge going on relating to the role of assistance provided to an international arbitration tribunal:

The Russian Federation argues that the arbitrators delegated substantive responsibilities to the Tribunal’s assistant and thus breached their mandate to perform their duties personally. Therefore, they say, the Award should be set aside ...

The role of law clerks, secretariats, and other assistants to judges, panelists, tribunal members, etc. is one of those issues people don't generally talk about, so I like to highlight it whenever it comes up.