ICC arbitral award : rules and proceedings

Abstract

For most of this century, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has been the world's leading organization in the field of international commercial dispute resolution. Established in 1923 as the arbitration body of ICC, the International Court of Arbitration has pioneered international commercial arbitration as it is known today. The Court took the lead in securing the worldwide acceptance of arbitration as the most effective way of resolving international commercial disputes. Since its creation, the Court has administered well over 14 000 international arbitration cases involving parties from more than 185 countries and territories and from different entities and sectors, whether private or public.' Demand for its services grows year by year in line with the expansion of international trade and the rapid globalization of the world economy. The dispute resolution mechanisms developed by ICC have been conceived specifically for business disputes in an international context. These disputes pose unique difficulties and challenges. Usually, the parties will be of different nationalities, with different linguistic, legal and cultural backgrounds. They may also have very different expectations about how a dispute can be resolved reasonably and fairly. Distrust may be relatively strong, accompanied by uncertainty or a lack of information about the course to follow. These difficulties may be compounded by distance and the disadvantages one party may face in submitting to a procedure on the other's home ground. For all these reasons, national courts in the country of one of the parties may not appear suitable to the other party. ICC has always led the way in providing international business with alternatives to court litigation. Even in a domestic context, parties ICC arbitration offers these advantages, as well as confidentiality and freedom for the parties to choose the arbitrators, the place of arbitration, the applicable rules of law, and even the language of the proceedings. The thorough-going revision that led to the 1998 Rules was conducted on a widespread basis. The experience of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in applying the Rules was also taken into account. The resulting Rules and procedures are the fruit of rich exchanges of views between practitioners from many different spheres. Although the basic features of ICC arbitration were not changed by the 1998 Rules, the practice of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and its Secretariat had evolved, as had arbitration proceedings in general, making it necessary to modernize the Rules. On this ground, our thesis will take the form of a practical study, first by presenting a useful background to the outstanding innovation of the ICC, its role in improving the international business and its different methods of International dispute resolution. Second, by highlighting the role of the ICC International Court of Arbitration as an administrator of the arbitral process and by standing on the importance of the ICC standard clause, third by describing the commencement of the arbitration process and the constitution of the arbitral tribunal starting by a discussion covering from Article 1 of the 1998 ICC Rules to Article 12. Four, by discussing the following process including the choice of the place and the language of arbitration and the rules of law applicable by the parties which are set by Article 13 till 23 of the said Rules, five by analyzing the steps for making the award and those following; the scrutiny, interpretation and the correction of the Award which are covered from Article 24 till 29 of the same Rules and finally an evaluation of those steps will be proved with commentaries on some issued cases studies.