Download the Code 2025, in force as from 1 July 2025

About the July 2025 editionChanges from the February 2023 edition

Key changes from the previous edition

1. Time limit for issuing the operative part of an appeal awardThe most significant practical change for clients. Previously, the operative part of the award had to be communicated within three months of the transfer of the file to the Panel, and the President of the Appeals Division could extend that time limit upon a reasoned request from the President of the Panel to four months after the closing of the evidentiary proceedings. The rule is now simple and uniform: the operative part of the award must be communicated to the parties no later than four months after the closing of the evidentiary proceedings. The difference lies in the starting point of the calculation; the time limit no longer runs from the moment the file is transferred, but from the end of the evidentiary phase.
2. Removal of the facsimile from the CodeReferences to facsimile (fax) have been removed throughout the text. Awards, orders and other decisions are now notified by courier and/or electronic mail, correspondence to the Court Office is likewise sent by those same two means, and in the list of contact details of the parties' representatives, "telephone and facsimile numbers" has been reduced to "telephone number" alone.
3. Internal clerk alongside the ad hoc clerkThe expression "ad hoc clerk" has been changed to "internal or ad hoc clerk"; that is, the Court may also appoint a clerk from among its own staff to assist the Panel. The clerk's fees are, as before, included in the arbitration costs.
4. Amount in dispute in the appointment of a Sole ArbitratorIn determining whether an appeal case is to be submitted to a three-member Panel or to a Sole Arbitrator, the President of the Division previously assessed only the circumstances of the case, including whether or not the Respondent had paid its share of the costs. The "amount in dispute" is now expressly one of the criteria as well.
5. Express duty to expedite the proceedingsA new sentence has been added to the Code: "The Panel shall ensure that the proceedings are conducted expeditiously and efficiently." This duty is repeated in both the ordinary arbitration procedure and the appeal arbitration procedure.
6. Enforceability of the award from the date of communication of the operative partIt is now expressly stated that the award is enforceable from the date of communication of the operative part by courier and/or electronic mail; that is, enforcement does not require waiting for the full reasoned text of the award.
7. Binding effect of the procedural calendar agreed by the partiesIn expedited proceedings, the time limits and the procedural calendar agreed by the parties are binding on the Court, provided they have been approved beforehand by the President of the Division or by the Panel.