International Arbitral Institutions

Arbitrations generally arise in one of two ways:

  • institutional arbitration:there may be an agreement between the parties (normally contained within the contract which is the subject of the dispute) to refer any disputes to arbitration. Such an arbitration agreement will often provide for the dispute to be resolved under the auspices of one of the recognised arbitral institutions that assists in and oversees the administration of arbitration proceedings. The ICC (based in Paris), the LCIA (based in London) and the AAA (with headquarters in New York) are three such international arbitral institutions. In addition, ICSID is specifically tailored towards investment disputes and WIPO is likely to be appropriate for dealing with intellectual property and e-commerce disputes. The leading arbitral institutions in the Asia-Pacific Region are CIETAC, HKIAC and SIAC.

  • "ad hoc" arbitration:if the parties do not already have an arbitration agreement in place, they may enter into an "ad hoc" arbitration agreement after the dispute has arisen. The most widely used and best known rules for use in connection with ad hoc arbitrations are the UNCITRAL Rules adopted in 1976 by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

A list of Useful links to the web sites of the major international arbitral institutions. These web sites provide current versions of the Rules applicable to the particular institution and recommended model arbitration clauses. The deceptively simple language of the model clauses should not be modified without specialist advice as this may result in the clause being interpreted as restrictive which could lead to disputes over the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal.

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