Norway has fairly recently updated its dispute resolution laws.

Formerly, both civil litigation in courts and arbitration was governed by

the Norwegian Civil Procedure Act of 1915 (Tvistemålsloven) (as

continuously updated and amended), arbitration being governed by that

act’s chapter 32.

 

The Civil Procedure Act’s rules on civil procedure (i.e. for cases in

the ordinary court system) was replaced by a new Norwegian Dispute

Resolution Act 2005 (“DRA”) (Tvisteloven) which was passed on 17

June 2005 (no. 60) and entered into force on 1 January 2008. It

incorporates (and amends) the rules on interim measures which were

earlier enacted in the Norwegian Enforcement Act (of 1992).

 

New legislation governing arbitration—the Norwegian Arbitration

Act 2004 ("AA") (Voldgiftsloven)—was prepared around the same time

as the DRA and was passed on 14 May 2004 (no. 25) and entered into

force on 1 January 2005. The DRA follows the UNCITRAL Model Law

(“ML”) to such extent (but not completely) as for Norway to be

considered a “Model Law jurisdiction”.

 

The AA provides that its rules can be abrogated by agreement

unless otherwise stated in the act (exceptions for a few basic rules to

secure fair trial, contradiction and justice). It is not uncommon that

parties make particular rules for an arbitration, or even incorporate a

complete set of arbitration rules such as those of the Oslo Chamber of

Commerce (OCC) (Oslo Handelskammer) or ICC. (OCC’s arbitration

rules mainly make explicit reference to the AA for all issues where there

are no particular OCC rules.)

 

Most arbitration in Norway, both domestic and international, is ad

hoc arbitration following the AA rules.