Commencement of International Arbitration

In an Institutional arbitration, the institution rules provides that the date of commencement is the date on which the institution receives the request for arbitration. Arbitrator is appointed from the panel of the institution depending on the nature of dispute and in most of the institutional arbitration a time-table is chalked out as to when the pleadings should be complete thereafter hearings, evidence, cross and submissions and thereafter passsing of an award.

Arbitration is a consensual process; both parties will have to agree to submit the dispute to arbitration. As a first step, parties should check their agreement to find out if there is an arbitration clause. Even if there is none, parties can still agree to submit the dispute to arbitration. This post-dispute agreement should be in writing. Once either step is fulfilled, a Notice of Arbitration has to be filed with the Registrar of the Institution.

In administered arbitrations, usually, it requires submission of a “Notice of Arbitration” or a “Request for Arbitration” before the competent institution along with payment of the filing fee and service of such Notice or Request to the respondent by either the institution or the party initiating international arbitration.

In administered arbitrations, the party initiating arbitration has to submit the Notice or Request to the competent body of the institution, and then, depending on the institution rules, either the party or the institution itself will transmit a copy to the respondent.

The date of commencement is usually the date of service to the respondent or the date of the filing to the relevant institution. Such date may be critical for the purposes of the statute of limitations.

Initiating arbitration properly will, generally, interrupt the statute of limitations and exclude the jurisdiction of State courts. State courts will, thus, normally decline jurisdiction, discontinue, or stay any identical proceedings pending before them.