Paper's abstract

Jean-Pierre Ancel, International Arbitration in France (Principles and System)
French law of international arbitration is essentially the work of precedents since the reform of the Décret of 12 may 1981. This law rests on several guiding principles on arbitral convention, proceedings and judgment, it, as a whole, forming the French system of international arbitration, aiming at security and efficiency of arbitration and which may be summed up as follows:
Guarantee of an arbitration convention with a reinforced validity, thanks to the institution of the separability principle of the international arbitration clause, allowing to make it immune from the invalidity clauses of the main agreement and to set it free from any State law system, this validity being exclusively based on the will of the contracting parties, controlled only by the requirements of the international public order – arbitration clause whose effects extends to the contract in question as a whole, to all the participants to the execution of the contract and is automatically transmitted with the main contract containing it, as secondary to this contract, of an arbitration convention with a reinforced validity thanks to the implementation of a principle.
Guarantee of arbitral proceedings ensuring a fair trial, with the support of a state judge (« juge d’appui »).
Establishment of a specific legal status of the international sentence, separated from the legal order of the State of origin and liable to be recognized and carried out in any reception country, were it even quashed in its country of origin (Hilmarton – Putrabali) – arbitration being thus instituted as an autonomous international jurisdiction.
All this under the control of the priority arbitrator – following the competence-competence principle, very narrowly followed in French law, then of the judge, regarding the requirements of the international public order, or of void clauses or refusal of acknowledgement strictly limited in their definition and implementation, thereby ensuring the international flow of the sentences.



Key Words : French law, international arbitration, directing principles, convention, arbitral award, french system, security, efficiency,
t. 52, 2009 : p. 197-212