Associate Professor Yuliya Chernykh will present her work in progress on the the topic of the extention of an arbitration agreement to non-signatories. The presentation will be followed by a discussion.
Below follows an abstract of the topic:
International law does not extend arbitration agreements and cannot be relied upon to establish jurisdiction of tribunals in contract-based arbitration: a reply to Michail Risvas.
In the article ‘International law as the basis for extending arbitration agreements concluded by states or state entities to non signatories’, Michail Risvas argues that public international law operates in parallel with domestic law and enables the extension of arbitration agreements to States or state entitites. In explaining his argument, Risvas relies upon (1) implied consent, (2) abuse of separate legal personality and (3) estoppel. As a conclusion, Risvas suggests that foreign investors may rely upon international law in order ‘to extend arbitration agreements to non-signatories in an arbitration conducted under investment contracts concluded by States or State entities’.
In her reply, Chernykh argues against possible reliance on public international law to extend arbitration agreements to non-signatory States or state entities. Her arguments are premised on domestic law as the proper law for an arbitration agreement and its capacity to meet all the challenges that stand behind considerations Risvas put forward in his arguments based on implied consent, abuse of separate legal personality, and estoppel. Chernykh also shows that the cases upon which Risvas relies do not create sufficient ground for inflating the role of international law in the extension of the arbitration agreements in contract-based cases.
All interested parties are welcome to join in the discussion.