International Arbitration 2025

DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Anne Buhl Bjelke, Johannes Grove Nielsen, Camilla Hudson and Rasmus Schmidt, Bech-Bruun

sion that the arbitral tribunal is exceeding the scope of its authority will be submitted as soon as possible after the matter alleged to be beyond the scope of its authority is raised during the arbitral proceedings. Similarly, it also follows from Article 25 (2) of the DIA Rules that objections to the jurisdiction of the tribunal must be raised no later than the statement of defence. A submission concerning the arbitral tribunal not hav - ing jurisdiction cannot be invoked in the enforcement process of the arbitral award unless the subject matter of arbitration was non-arbitrable in the first place, as set out in Section 6 of the DAA under Section 16 (4) of the DAA. 5.4 Standard of Judicial Review for Jurisdiction/Admissibility As mentioned in 3.3 National Courts’ Approach , the DAA includes limitations as to the national courts’ availability to review disputes subject to a (valid) arbi - tration agreement under Section 8 (1) of the DAA. The standard of judicial review for jurisdiction to be employed is not specified in the statutory provisions of Danish law. There is no conclusive case law on the standard to be applied. Therefore, a case-by-case assessment has to be carried out to take the specific circumstances of the case into account. The Danish courts have traditionally been reluctant to set aside decisions from an arbitral tribunal. A national court will most likely be reluctant to set aside a deci - sion from the tribunal ruling on its own jurisdiction. 5.5 Breach of Arbitration Agreement As mentioned in 3.3 National Courts’ Approach , the national courts must dismiss the case if a dispute covered by an arbitration agreement is filed with the national courts and impose costs on the losing party. Naturally, this does not apply if an arbitration agree - ment is found null and void, inoperable or incapable of being performed. As the parties can agree to enter into an arbitration agreement, the same parties can also agree to waive the agreement and proceed at national courts or through other means of dispute resolution. If a dispute is filed with the national courts, the national court will generally not raise the question of breach when the

parties do not raise any objection against the jurisdic - tion of the court, regardless of whether the dispute is

subject to an arbitration agreement. 5.6 Jurisdiction Over Third Parties

The arbitral tribunal is generally not competent to assume jurisdiction over third parties that have not signed or entered into the arbitration agreement. How - ever, third parties may sometimes be assimilated to a party bound by the arbitration agreement, such as in cases of universal succession (see 13.5 Binding of Third Parties ). It has been debated as to whether this principal rule – ie, that only signatories of the agreement are bound by the agreement – is modified by a Dan - ish Supreme Court decision issued in 2014. In this case (U 2014.2042 H), the court ruled that the claim between two parties with no direct contractual rela - tionship (and therefore no arbitration agreement between them either) was to be resolved through arbi - tration, as the agreements of each party contained an arbitration clause that allowed this interpretation. The agreements of each link contained reference to the same agreed document and, therefore, the same arbitration clause. In relation to disputes governed by the Arbitration Board, Section 69 (7) of AB 18 provides that when AB 18 (or its predecessor, AB 92) applies to the rela - tionship between the employer and several parties (contractors, suppliers), the arbitration agreement will apply to the interrelationship between the parties. If a party requests it, the arbitral tribunal can order any party to take such interim measures of protection as the arbitral tribunal deems necessary in respect of the circumstances of the dispute under Section 17 of the DAA. However, if a party does not comply with the order from the arbitral tribunal, there is no legal basis providing for the enforceability of the interim meas - ures of protection ordered by the tribunal. To ensure enforceability, the party must engage the national courts (see 6.2 Role of Courts ). 6. Preliminary and Interim Relief 6.1 Types of Relief

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