GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: John Dryllerakis, Claire Sergaki and Vasileios Plakoulas, Dryllerakis Law Firm
2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
1.3 Arbitration Institutions Institutional arbitration is often favoured because it spares the parties the burden of creating their own rules and procedures. Instead, the parties can rely on the established rules of an arbitral institution, which also provides administrative support throughout the arbitration process. To this aim, parties tend to opt for arbitral institutions of renowned status, such as the International Cham - ber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of Interna - tional Arbitration (LCIA), the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) and the Athens Mediation & Arbitra - tion Organization (EODID). It is also notable that Greek Law 5016/2023 on inter - national arbitration has recently modernised the regu - lation of domestic arbitration institutions in Greece. Such institutions shall obligatorily have the corporate form of a société anonyme , whilst specific standards for their establishment (minimum capital, etc) are also introduced, ensuring a minimum quality level for the services they provide. The Ministry of Justice is also expected to issue a ministerial decision with regard to the supervision of domestic arbitration institutions in accordance with Article 47 of Law 5016/2023. 1.4 National Courts There are no specific courts in Greece that are des - ignated to hear solely matters related to international or domestic arbitration. Law 5016/2023 on International Commercial Arbitra - tion designates the civil single-member court of first instance as the competent authority for the appoint - ment and replacement of arbitrators, hearing chal - lenges regarding arbitrators and assisting with the taking of evidence. The civil single-member court of first instance is also competent to hear petitions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Lastly, the civil three-member court of appeals han - dles requests to set aside an arbitral award.
International commercial arbitration in Greece is gov - erned by the newly established Law 5016/2023, which replaced Law 2735/1999. However, pursuant to Article 48.1 of Law 5016/2023, Law 2735/1999 still governs all international arbitrations commenced before 4 Feb - ruary 2023. The adoption of Law 5016/2023, as explicitly stipu - lated in Article 2, was meant to incorporate the Unit - ed Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of 2006 (the “Model Law”) and its amend - ments, as well as the latest trends in international arbi- tration theory and practice. Deviations From the UNCITRAL Model Law Even though Law 5016/2023 integrated the amend - ments introduced in the Model Law, it also contains the following deviations. • Article 16 (multiparty arbitrations): it expressly regulates the appointment and constitution of the arbitral tribunal in cases involving multiple claim - ants and/or respondents. The Model Law contains no equivalent provision on multiparty arbitration proceedings. • Article 19.2 (challenge procedure): the arbitrators whose impartiality, independence or necessary qualifications are being challenged may express their views but cannot participate in the decision on the challenge. In contrast, the Model Law does not exclude the challenged arbitrator from the process. • Article 22 (arbitrators’ liability): arbitrators are liable only for intentional misconduct or gross negli - gence. The Model Law does not address arbitrator liability. • Article 24 (joinder and consolidation): the arbitral tribunal may allow third parties to join the proceed - ings (if bound by the arbitration agreement) and may consolidate separate disputes under certain conditions. The Model Law is silent on both mat - ters. • Article 43.2 (application to set aside): new grounds for setting aside an award include those justifying
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