Guide pratique - Règles et pratiques du droit français de l'arbitrage -1 - (Page 208)

` REGLES ET PRATIQUES DU DROIT FRANCAIS DE L’ARBITRAGE ¸ Julian Lew indique, quant a lui : « Essentially all of these documents have the same effect in ` arbitral proceedings, namely to formally commence the arbitration. This document confirms the existence of a dispute between the parties to a contract and the decision to refer it to arbitration by one of the parties. (...) The exact requirements for the form and content of these documents are set out to varying degrees of detail in applicable rules and laws. In general, the central requirements is for the claimant to give notice and set out the subject in dispute and identify the relief being sought, first to respondent and then to the tribunal. This may circumscribe the issue to be determined in the arbitration (...) the intention was that the respondent would have sufficient information to be aware of the general context of the claim so that it could decide on its future course of conduct in the arbitration »652. Il souligne que la loi modele de la CNUDCI ne prevoit aucune exigence specifique sur ce point. L’article 21 ` ´ ´ enonce toutefois que la demande d’arbitrage doit faire reference a un litige precis afin ´ ´´ ` ´ d’eviter toute incertitude de nature a creer un doute dans l’esprit du defendeur quant a ce ´ ` ´ ´ ` qui est reellement soumis a l’arbitrage. Le degre de precision de l’expose du litige n’est ´ ` ´ ´ ´ pas specifie et laisse donc aux parties, dans chaque cas, le soin de trancher cette ques´ ´ tion. Les facteurs pouvant influer sur cette question sont a la fois tactiques et pratiques. ` S’agissant ensuite des moyens relatifs a l’imprecision de la requete d’arbitrage, Yves ` ´ ˆ ´ Derains et Eric Schwartz indiquent : « There have occasionally been instances in ICC arbitrations where Respondent parties have complained that the information provided in the Request concerning the claims and relief sought is insufficient (...) Indeed, in at least one case, a party sought to have an ICC Award annulled in the Netherlands on the ground that a Claimant’s alleged failure to comply with the Rules’ requirements in this regard prevented the Arbitral Tribunal from complying with its mandate and placed its Award in conflict with public policy. The challenge of the Award was unsuccessful, however, the Dutch court having concluded that the description of the claim in the Request was sufficiently clear to enable the Respondent to raise a defense (...) This being said, the Secretariat has been reluctant to undertake to verify thoroughly and systematically the Claimant’s compliance with all of the requirements of the Rules relating to the Request, and the Court has also generally avoided having to decide whether all of the relevant requirements have been satisfied, in cases of disagreement. Thus, for example, in one case the Court was asked by a disgruntled Respondent party to determine whether the Claimant had provided a sufficient statement of its case, as required under the former Rules. The Court refused to decide the matter, however, and directed that the issue be considered by the Arbitral Tribunal. Indeed, as a general rule, neither the Court nor the Secretariat has wished to be responsible for deciding upon the sufficiency of a party’s satisfaction of specific requirements of the Rules in cases where this is disputed, except possibly where the alleged breach is manifest. Moreover, it has not generally been the position of either the Court or those arbitrators who have been called upon to decide upon such matters that a defect in a Request should have the consequence of invalidating it, provided that it is correctible »653. MM. Derains et Schwartz indiquent qu’une fois au moins une partie a tente d’obtenir l’an´ nulation d’une sentence arbitrale en pretendant que la demande d’arbitrage n’etait pas ´ ´ 652. J. D. Lew, The Scope and Contents of the Request for Arbitration in a Comparative Perspectives, in Arbitral at the Dawn of the New Millenium, Bruylant, 2004. 653. Y. Derains, E. A. Schwarz, A Guide to the ICC Rules of Arbitration, 2005, p. 45. 192

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Guide pratique - Règles et pratiques du droit français de l'arbitrage -1