NY Convention Article V(1)(a): Party Incapacity or Invalid Agreement to Arbitrate - Chapter 3 - The Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Russia

Author(s):

William R. Spiegelberger

Page Count:

14 pages

Media Description:

1 PDF Download

Published:

August, 2014

Jurisdictions:

Practice Areas:

PDF630.46 KB

$40.00

Description:

Preview Page

NY Convention article V(1)(a) and ICA Law article 36(1)(1)

provide that enforcement may be denied under two circumstances:

(a) if the parties to the relevant agreement were, under the law

applicable to them, under some incapacity, or (b) if the agreement to

arbitrate is not valid under the law to which the parties have

subjected it or the law of the country where the award was made.

The form of the agreement, in contrast, is governed by NY

Convention article II(1), which requires an “agreement in writing,”

and article II(2), which further specifies that a qualifying agreement

may take various forms, including “an arbitral clause in a contract”

or an “arbitration agreement, signed by the parties or contained in an

exchange of letters or telegrams.” In the cases that follow, only one

relates to the competence of a party; the rest relate to the validity of

the arbitration agreement.

A. Forged Signature

1. Enforcement denied upon the enforcing court’s finding that the

resisting party’s signature in an addendum containing the

arbitration clause was a forgery

At issue in Vinkoncern v. Terminal Service1 (enforcement

denied) was the authenticity of a party signature on a contract

addendum containing the relevant arbitration clause. The claimant

(“Vinkoncern”) obtained a UCCI award dated 28 April 2006 for

$37,355 against respondent (“Terminal Service”). The award was