Originally from World Arbitration Reporter - Second Edition

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I.  BASIC INFORMATION

A. History and Background of the Institution

1. History

Arbitration has a long history in Austria. The first statutory regulation of arbitration was contained in the Austrian Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”) of 1 August 1895.

In 1974 the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (“AFEC”)  was empowered to establish a permanent arbitral center for the settling of international disputes. Until the foundation of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (“VIAC”) in 1974, all nine Regional Economic Chambers were ex lege entitled to establish a permanent arbitral institution for the settlement of commercial disputes (these regional arbitral centers were both responsible for handling national and international cases).

The VIAC began its work on 1 January 1975 and is a division of the AFEC. However, the VIAC itself, its Board members,  the Secretary General and his/her deputy  are not subject to any directives from the AFEC (Schwarz, F./ Konrad, C., The Vienna Rules [2009] para 1-007). In the same year, the first version of VIAC’s rules (“Vienna Rules”) was issued by the Board of the AFEC.

The VIAC has been established as the exclusive center for the settling of disputes with an international character in order to strengthen Austria as a place for international commercial arbitration. Pursuant to Art. 1,  it administers arbitrations pursuant to an agreement of the parties, if at the time of the conclusion of the agreement at least one of the parties had its place of business or usual residence outside Austria; further, for the resolution of disputes of an international character, the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal to be constituted under the Vienna Rules may also be agreed upon by parties whose place of business or usual residence is in Austria.