BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Nathalie Colin and Florence Frühling, Freshfields LLP
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
1.4 National Courts Under Belgian law, the power to decide on arbitration- related issues has been centralised in the Courts of First Instance and with the President of these Courts, where support is required before or during the arbi - tration proceedings (Article 1680, Section 5 of the Belgian Judicial Code (BJC)). Within these courts, arbitration-related cases are generally assigned to a specific chamber composed of judges with experi - ence in arbitration law. The Belgian Arbitration Act of 24 June 2013 aimed to harmonise Belgian law with the UNCITRAL Model Law and has been implemented into Part VI of the BJC. The preparatory words of the Belgian Arbitra - tion Act confirm that the Belgian legislature wished to present Belgium “as a country open to international arbitration and as a country with progressive arbitra - tion legislation”. Although Belgian arbitration law is largely inspired by the UNCITRAL Model Law, it departs from it in several respects. For example: 2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law • Part VI of the BJC applies to all types of arbitra - tion – not just commercial arbitration – and does not distinguish between domestic and international arbitration (Article 1676 BJC); • an arbitral award rendered in Belgium must state the reasons upon which the decision is based (Arti - cle 1713, Section 4 BJC); and • the absence of reasoning is a ground for annulment of the award (Article 1717, Section 3 (a)(iv) BJC). 2.2 Changes to National Law There have been no substantial changes to Belgian arbitration law since the Law of 28 March 2024, which introduced technical amendments to Part VI of the BJC, primarily simplifying the time limits for annulment and enforcement challenges of awards, as well as pro - hibiting the recognition or enforcement of annulled awards.
Although a large number of disputes in Belgium are still resolved by State courts, international arbitration is increasingly favoured (particularly in international commercial disputes) due to its speed, confidentiality, procedural flexibility and the expertise of arbitrators. Belgium continues to engage in international arbitra - tion. For the year 2024, the Belgian Centre for Arbi - tration and Mediation (CEPANI) – which is the most important arbitration institution in Belgium – reported that 42% of its cases involved at least one interna - tional party, while Belgium was selected as the seat of arbitration in ten cases registered with the Interna - tional Chamber of Commerce (ICC). 1.2 Key Industries Certain industries in Belgium have seen notable inter - national arbitration activity in recent years. At CEPANI, 51% of cases in 2024 involved corporate law matters (ie, corporate disputes and share pur - chase agreement disputes) while 41% concerned ser - vice agreements. This contrasts with the ICC global caseload, where nearly 44% of disputes arose from the engineering, construction and energy sectors – mainly due to the complexity and cross-border nature The most used arbitral institutions for international arbitration in Belgium are the ICC and CEPANI. The ICC is more frequently chosen for cross-border dis - putes due to its global reputation and enforceability of awards. CEPANI is preferred when one party is Belgian, offering multilingual proceedings and strong local expertise. However, in terms of volume, the ICC handles more international cases than CEPANI. In November 2024, “C-Build by Cepani” was launched as a new department within CEPANI, specifically dedi - cated to providing tailored dispute resolution services (including arbitration, mediation and expert determina - tion) for the construction sector. CEPANI also includes a dedicated section for sports arbitration: the Belgian Centre for Sports Arbitration (C-SAR). of contracts in these industries. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions
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