Authority of the National Court to Intervene in the International Arbitration Process from the Perspective of International Commercial Arbitration Law

Abstract

As a result of the complexity of international commercial disputes, international arbitration has become the preferred and most effective method for resolving disputes. In 1995, UNCITRAL formulated the Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (Model Law) which may be utilized by UNCITRAL member states as a consistent and transparent legal foundation to facilitate international arbitration in various jurisdictions. Setting aside the independence from national courts and effectiveness of arbitration, in practice the international arbitration process can be delayed or terminated by the intervention of national courts. Based on these facts, this research is aimed towards figuring out the authority of national courts to intervene in the international arbitration process from the perspective of the UNCITRAL Model Law. This Research utilizes a normative juridical approach and qualitative descriptive data analysis method, namely research on the legal principles within UNCITRAL Model Law in order to give an illustration and explanation on the subject and object of the research. The results of this research are firstly, the UNCITRAL Model Law gives limited authority for national courts in the seat of arbitration to intervene an arbitration process only in specific situations. Secondly, in practice there are two kinds of court intervention which are the ones in compliance with the provisions and limitations within the UNCITRAL Model Law and the ones that are not. The author proposes that there should be a more distinct differentiation between what is called a court intervention and what is merely the court’s function to supervise and accompany arbitral proceedings.