Request for Arbitration - Article 9 - Chamber of Arbitration of Milan Rules: A Commentary
MICHAEL MCILWRATH is Associate General Counsel - Litigation for GE Oil & Gas, based at the company’s headquarters in Florence, Italy. He is co-author of the book International Arbitration and Mediation: A Practical Guide (Kluwer 2010), host of International Dispute Negotiation (http://www.cpradr.org), the podcast of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), winner of the CEDR award for Innovation in ADR, and a contributing editor of the Kluwer International Arbitration blog. Mike is also an adjunct professor at the Law Faculty at the University of Florence, where he teaches courses on negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. He is a member and past-president of the Board of Directors of the International Mediation Institute, a non-profit in the Netherlands promoting mediation as a global profession through quality, standards, and transparency, and a member of the Board of Director of the National Center for Science Education, a non-profit in California that defends the teaching of science in the public schools. Mike grew up in California, had his first jobs as a writer and English teacher in Italy, and then qualified as a lawyer in New York, practicing with Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He returned to Italy in 1999 to join GE.
Originally from Chamber of Arbitration of Milan Rules: A Commentary
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ARTICLE 9 – REQUEST FOR ARBITRATION
1. Claimant shall file a request for arbitration with the Secretariat.
2. The request shall be signed by the party or by its counsel with power of attorney and shall contain or be accompanied by:
a. the names and domicile addresses of the parties;
b. a description of the dispute;
c. a statement of the claims and of their economic value;
d. the appointment of the arbitrator or any relevant indications as to the number of arbitrators and the method for their selection;
e. a statement of evidence, if any, required in support of the claim and any documents that the party deems appropriate to produce;
f. a brief statement, if any, as to the rules applicable to the proceedings, the rules applicable to the merits of the dispute or as to the ex aequo et bono decision, the seat and the language of the arbitration;
g. the power of attorney conferred on counsel, if already appointed;
h. the arbitration agreement.
3. The Secretariat shall send the request for arbitration to the Respondent within five working days from the filing. Claimant may send the request for arbitration directly to Respondent, provided that the request is also filed simultaneously with the Secretariat. In any case, any timelimit set by the Rules will run from the sending made by the Secretariat.
1. The introduction of the dispute to arbitration An arbitration is initiated under the CAM Rules when the Request for Arbitration is filed with the CAM Secretariat. The Request is the only document that the CAM arbitration rules specifically require parties to file,1 and Article 9 sets forth the minimum information it must contain. In doing so, the CAM rules do not limit what parties may express in their Request.2 Thus, the Request will not only be a document that permits CAM to set the proceedings in motion,3 it will also present the Claimant with a number of strategic decisions and opportunities in presenting its case to the opposing party and to the Tribunal, once constituted. In other words, a request for arbitration under the CAM Rules should not be seen as straightjacketed by a “typical form of request” or “standard practice”, but should vary according to what the claimant hopes to achieve, and how it hopes to achieve it, in having initiated the proceedings.
1. The introduction of the dispute to arbitration
2. How to file the Request with the Secretariat
3. The Claimant’s authorization to initiate arbitration and its appointment (or not) of counsel
4. The content of the Request for Arbitration
5. Identifying the parties; multiple parties
6. The description of the dispute, claims and relief sought
7. The appointment and number of arbitrators
8. The statement of evidence
9. The applicable rules, seat of arbitration and language of the proceedings
10. The power of attorney conferred of counsel
11. The arbitration agreement
12. The Date of Commencement of the Arbitration and Time Periods
13. The consequences of a non-compliant Request for Arbitration