Title: The New Austrian Arbitration Act and the European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration
Abstract: INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION derives its legal effects from several legal sources, usually involving the law of the seat of the arbitral tribunal and the enforcement forum. Enforcement is regulated through the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (‘New York Convention’).1 Article II of the New York Convention requires states that are parties to this convention to recognise valid arbitration agreements. However, arbitral procedure and the review of arbitral awards are to a large extent not harmonised through international conventions. States are in principle free to regulate arbitral procedure and the procedure for setting aside awards rendered in arbitrations whose seat is in their territory.2
Harmonisation of the rules governing the arbitral procedure was, however, already a goal of the European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration (‘European Convention’), signed on 21 April 1961.3 Its purpose was to promote European trade by removing difficulties impeding international commercial arbitration.4 In a time before the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law, and with greatly differing national arbitration laws, the European Convention was the first uniform set of rules directly applying to all stages of international arbitration. Although primarily drafted in the context of trade between the then Eastern and Western blocks, it provided novel and innovative solutions to problems only partly covered by national laws and international instruments.
With the widespread adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law, the European Convention may appear increasingly obsolete. While not creating internationally binding obligations for the states that adopted it, the Model Law de facto harmonised large parts of the national arbitration laws of countries with significant arbitration practice.5 The recent enactment of the new Austrian Arbitration Act,6 which largely follows the UNCITRAL Model Law, is a good occasion to look at the relationship between the European …
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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