GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: John Dryllerakis, Claire Sergaki and Vasileios Plakoulas, Dryllerakis Law Firm
a petition for revision under Articles 544.6 (per - jury and falsified/forged documents) and 544.10 (bribery) of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure. Said grounds are not provided in the Model Law. • Article 44.2 (res judicata and enforcement): an arbitral award may affect third parties only if they are bound by the arbitration agreement. The Model Law has no similar provision. 2.2 Changes to National Law As explained in 2.1 Governing Law , Law 5016/2023 has replaced Law 2735/1999, and was subsequently amended by Law 5026/2023 concerning Article 7. As far as is known, there is no pending draft legislation introducing changes to the framework for international and/or domestic arbitration in Greece. In February 2025, a Special Secretariat for Alternative Dispute Resolution was established, reporting directly to the Minister of Justice, with the purpose of reform - ing the legislative framework for mediation, judicial mediation, arbitration and any other form of out-of- court dispute resolution. According to Article 10.1 et seq of Law 5016/2023, arbitration agreements may be in the form of an arbi - tration clause in a specific contract or in the form of a separate agreement, and shall be memorialised in a document whose content has been agreed by the parties expressly or tacitly. Therefore, the arbitration agreement must be in writing; however, this require - ment is not constitutive but is only for evidentiary purposes. As per Article 10.4, the parties’ unreserved participation in the arbitral proceedings evidences the conclusion of an arbitration agreement. The parties’ legal capacity to enter into the arbitration agreement shall also be examined, as well as, where applicable, the authority of any persons acting on their behalf to bind them to such an agreement. 3.2 Arbitrability Article 3.4 of Law 5016/2023 provides that any dispute is arbitrable, unless the law prohibits it. Under Greek 3. The Arbitration Agreement 3.1 Enforceability
law, penal disputes, family disputes and insolvency proceedings are generally deemed non-arbitrable. 3.3 National Courts’ Approach Law 5016/2023 (Article 11) has adopted the principle of favorem validitatis with respect to the arbitration clause. Under this principle, an arbitration agreement shall be regarded as valid if it is valid in accordance with the law chosen by the parties, or the law of the seat of arbitration, or the law governing the substan - tive agreement. This approach ensures that the arbi - tration agreement will be upheld if it meets the criteria of any one of these legal frameworks, thus reflecting a pro-arbitration stance, which is also evident in the Greek courts’ jurisprudence. 3.4 Validity Article 23.1 of Law 5016/2023 adopts the fundamental principle of the separability of the arbitration clause. In essence, the Law provides that an arbitration clause included in a contract shall be considered an agree - ment independent of the other terms of the contract. The invalidity or termination of the contract does not automatically render the arbitration clause null. Law 5016/2023 does not place significant limits on the parties’ autonomy to appoint an arbitrator. In this context, Article 15.1 stipulates that the nationality of a person shall not be an impediment to their appoint - ment as an arbitrator, unless otherwise agreed by the parties. Furthermore, the arbitrator shall be impartial and independent and, as per Article 18.1, a person proposed to be appointed as arbitrator shall disclose any fact or circumstance that may give rise to reason - able doubts as to their impartiality or independence. 4.2 Default Procedures If the parties have not agreed on the nomination of the arbitrators, and the arbitration has not been submit- ted to the rules of an arbitral institution, Article 15.4 of Law 5016/2023 shall apply, which provides for the following. 4. The Arbitral Tribunal 4.1 Limits on Selection
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