Way of Appointing an Arbitrator in an Arbitration Clause

The Supreme Court of the Czech Republic has recently dealt with the question of the way of conclusion of the arbitrator in an arbitration clause (decision as of November 8^th, 2016, Reference Number 23 Cdo 1098/2016).

In that specific situation there was concluded that the choice of the arbitrator is on the petitioner.

With respect to the principle of equality of parties which belongs to the fundamental procedural principles is according to the Supreme undesirable to appoint the arbitrators entirely or predominantly only by one of the contracting parties.

The choice of the arbitrator in the above stated provision depends only on the will of the petitioner; therefore the provision cannot be valid.

With the above mentioned is connected also the question if despite the invalidity of the provision about the choice of the arbitrator the rest of the arbitration clause is valid.

In connection with this question the Supreme Court referred to its previous judicature (decision as of May 5^th, 2011, Reference Number 31 Cdo 1945/2010) in which the Supreme Court expressed its opinion that in case the provision about the choice of the arbitrator is invalid, the whole arbitration clause is invalid.