Arbitration

Arbitration is a private law means of dispute resolution that is gaining terrain in international trade. It may concern product arbitration under commercial sales trade agreements, such as committee arbitrations at the Royal Commitee of Grain Traders (Koninklijk Comité van Graanhandelaren) and NOFOTA arbitrations.

Examples of international product arbitration institutes are GAFTA and FOSFA.

Examples of general arbitration institutes are the Dutch Arbitration Institute (Nederlands Arbitrage Instituut, NAI) and UNUM. Well-known international arbitration institutes are the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Stockholm Chambers of Commerce (SCC). Proceedings before these institutes are usually conducted in English.

Product arbitrations are characterized by the (very) short (and often fatal) terms within which the arbitration needs to be commenced and within which other formalities need to be complied with.

A great benefit of arbitration as opposed to litigation before government courts is that arbitral awards can be executed in approximately 150 countries worldwide in accordance with the New York convention. This means that the chance that the arbitral award can actually be executed outside the European Economic Space (EES) is much higher than when a Dutch court order is to be executed outside the EES.

The specialists of Van Traa advise on both drafting arbitration agreements, as well as representing our clients before an arbitral tribunal. You may also consult them for the execution or arbitral decisions and making asset recovery strategies.