Arbitration clause examples

By including an arbitration clause in the contract, you submit a dispute that may arise to the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, but in order to ensure that the result is correct, we recommend paying attention to the following.

1. The name of the court where you wish to settle any dispute which may arise MUST be correct so that there is no further dispute as to which arbitration court is meant in the contract.

2. Less is better, or like with everything else, it is not always worth over-regulating the arbitration clause. The advantage of an arbitration court lies partly in its ability to adapt, i.e., each dispute is handled uniquely. As it is very difficult to predict whether a dispute may arise from EUR 5,000 or EUR 500,000, some leeway should be left in the arbitration clause – it is not always necessary to agree on the establishment of an arbitration panel in advance, it can be organized even when the subject matter of the dispute and the claim (size of claim) has been made.

3. Language of the dispute In the case of an international contract, it is reasonable to agree on the language of the dispute. If, for example, a partner is a company from China, it would be relatively difficult for a party from Estonia to conduct court proceedings in Chinese, and for a party from China, it would be equally difficult to use Estonian. As a reasonable alternative, a language understood by both parties should then be agreed upon.

Sample clauses are given here, but let us remind you that these are still examples! The examples are based on § 4 of our court rules.

standard ecci arbitration agreement 

Any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or in connection with this contract shall be finally settled by the Arbitration Court of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in accordance with its rules.

We recommend adding:

  1. The arbitral tribunal shall be composed of three arbitrators/a sole arbitrator. 
  2. The seat of arbitration shall be […].
  3. The language of the arbitral proceedings shall be […].
  4. This contract shall be governed by the substantive law of […].

Expedited arbitration agreement

Any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or in connection with this contract shall be finally settled by the Arbitration Court of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in accordance with its rules on expedited procedure.

We recommend adding:

  1. The seat of arbitration shall be […].
  2. The language of the arbitral proceedings shall be […].
  3. This contract shall be governed by the substantive law of […].

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