The Ecuadorian Legal system follows the tradition civil law

(“Napoleonic”) where laws must be written and be part of statutes in

order to have any legal value. Given this, the Rules of Civil Procedure,

the Civil Procedure Code and the Arbitration and Mediation Law (AML)

guide the process of both provisional measures and arbitration

proceedings taken place under the law of the Republic of Ecuador.

 

Both the Civil Procedure Code and the Arbitration and Mediation

Law, allow parties to go forward with a petition in court, arbitration or

both. The Ecuadorian legal system allows judges to grant a provisional

measure at every stage of the proceeding. Arbitrators are allowed to grant

and enforce every measure that they consider appropriate except for

imprisonment, granting the tribunals the same power as courts to grant

every measure they consider appropriate, except on ex part basis.

 

 

1. (a) Are courts authorized to issue orders of attachment,

injunctions or other provisional orders with respect to

arbitration proceedings?

 

The AML establishes the very broad power of arbitrators to order

and to enforce precautionary measures in an arbitration proceeding in

Ecuador. Article 9 allows the arbitrators to so order “… pursuant to the

rules of the Code of Civil Procedure or those deemed necessary for each

case”, and therefore they are not limited to those listed in the Code but

may comprise any measures that will contribute to “… secure the goods

that are the subject matter of the proceeding or to guarantee its results.”

It should be noted that the arbitration panel can request bonds from the

parties to guarantee the appropriateness of the measures requested or to

suspend their effects, as the case may be.1