DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Jakob Lentz, Johannes Grove Nielsen, Camilla Hudson and Rasmus Schmidt, Bech-Bruun
2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
sector-specific institutions, the DIA adjudicates cases across a wide range of sectors. The DIA has prepared the DIA Rules for Arbitration Procedures (the “DIA Rules”), with the latest version being in force as of 13 April 2021. The Danish Building and Construction Arbitration Board (the “Arbitration Board”) oversees the vast majority of arbitral disputes in the construction sector. Along with its predecessors, AB 18 is the most com - monly used document in agreements concerning the building and construction sector. AB 18 contains an arbitration clause that refers to the Arbitration Board as the dispute resolution institute. While dispute reso - lution before the Arbitration Board is categorised as arbitration under the Danish Arbitration Act of 2005 (the DAA) and the New York Convention on the Rec - ognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”), the proceedings deviate from international arbitration in relation to the oppor - tunity and custom of appointing technical arbitrators instead of legal arbitrators. Arbitrators with a legal background are, as a rule, appointed by a commit - tee comprising judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court, while arbitrators with a professional background in the field of conflict are proposed by the Arbitration Board’s Secretariat. Institutions of international character, such as the International Chamber of Commerce, are also occa - sionally used by Danish parties. Finally, since 2022, there has been an increase in cases referred to arbitration under NOMA, an asso - ciation established in 2017 that facilitates international arbitrations in the Nordic countries within the maritime No specific courts are designated to hear disputes relating to international or domestic arbitrations. In the Danish civil court system, matters pertaining to inter - national arbitrations and/or domestic arbitrations of commercial disputes would proceed before the ordi - nary national courts. and offshore industry. 1.4 National Courts
The central statute governing arbitral proceedings is the DAA. The DAA applies when the arbitration is seat - ed in Denmark and it does not differentiate between national arbitration (ie, arbitration without international affiliation) and international arbitration (ie, arbitration with international affiliation); see Section 1 (1) of the DAA. Some provisions of the DAA also apply when the place of arbitration is a foreign country or when it has not yet been determined (see Section 1 (2) of the DAA). The DAA largely reflects the 1985 version of the UNCITRAL Model Law. One deviation of the DAA from the Model Law is the scope of application. The DAA also applies in cases of national arbitration and cases of non-commercial arbitration. The DAA contains several provisions that refer to the national courts. Proceedings at the national courts are regulated by the Administration of Justice Act of 1916 (the AJA). The proceedings will therefore also be subject to this Act if the national courts are engaged. If institutional arbitration is chosen, the arbitral pro - ceedings will be subject to the rules in force at that particular institution. An example of this is the DIA Rules, which govern proceedings at the DIA. If the proceedings are filed with the DIA, the arbitration is governed by the DIA Rules and, where the rules are silent on a specific point, by any other rules of the par - ties – or, failing that, by rules decided by the tribunal No recent changes have been made to the DAA. The last major change to regulatory arbitration rules was in 2021, when the DIA Rules were revised. The new DIA Rules entered into force on 13 April 2021 and replaced the 2013 DIA Rules. The new Rules were formulated in line with the standards of Danish and international arbitration practice. (see Article 28 (2) of the DIA Rules). 2.2 Changes to National Law
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