SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Jose Piñeiro, Natàlia Ros and Laura Martín, Cases & Lacambra
Cases & Lacambra Av. Diagonal, 618 Sarrià-Sant Gervasi 08021 Barcelona Spain Tel: +34 93 611 92 32 Email: spain@caseslacambra.com Web: www.caseslacambra.com
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
• At the time of the conclusion of the arbitration agreement, the parties have their domiciles in dif - ferent countries. • The place of arbitration, determined in or pursuant to the arbitration agreement, the place of perfor - mance of a substantial part of the obligations in dispute or the place with which the dispute is most closely connected, is outside the state in which the parties have their domiciles. • The legal relationship in dispute is connected to international trade interests. Therefore, under Spanish law, arbitration proceedings will be considered international only in those cases. 1.2 Key Industries Between 2021 and 2024, international arbitration has increased exponentially in fields that require higher levels of expertise. This is the case for the construction and energy indus - tries, in which it is quite common for the contracting parties to agree to submit their disputes to interna - tional arbitration due to the specific expertise required for the resolution of those kinds of proceedings. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions In Spain, the most frequently used international arbi - tration court is the Court of Arbitration of the Interna - tional Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Moreover, until 2020 there were four arbitral institu - tions in Spain used for international arbitration:
In Spain, arbitration is the dispute resolution pro - cedure of choice. Indeed, arbitral awards are auto - matically enforceable before ordinary courts (Article 517.2.2 of the Spanish Procedural Law, Act 1/2000, of 7 January 2000). However, some domestic parties are still reluctant to use arbitration to resolve their disputes, although the prevalence of arbitration has increased because judi - cial proceedings are too slow in some parts of Spain. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the reform of the Civil Procedure Act introduced by Organic Law 1/2025 of 2 January on measures to improve the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, which introduces the requirement to resort to an alternative means of dis - pute resolution prior to filing a lawsuit. This require - ment, applicable to ordinary jurisdiction proceedings, has been in force since 3 April 2025. This circumstance may lead some parties to opt for arbitration instead of ordinary jurisdiction. However, given that this requirement has only been in force for a few months, we cannot predict the effects that this reform will have. With respect to international arbitration proceedings, Article 3 of the Spanish Arbitration Act 60/2003 of 23 December 2003 (SAA) states that arbitration proceed - ings shall be considered international when any of the following circumstances apply:
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