The Jurisdiction of Arbitration Tribunals under the New Arbitration and Conciliation, Working Procedure Proclamation No.1237/2021
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Date
2023-05
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AAU
Abstract
This research examines and analyzes the competence of an arbitration tribunal in deciding on
jurisdictional disputes from arbitration law of Ethiopia and international commercial arbitration
rules and other countries’ commercial arbitration laws perspectives. Major international
commercial arbitration rules and most national commercial arbitration laws empower
arbitration tribunals to decide on arbitration jurisdictional disputes. Similarly, the new
arbitration law of Ethiopia enacted in 2021 gives authority to rule on disputes arising out of the
validity or existence of the arbitration agreement unlike the civil code which empowered the
regular court in determining arbitration’s jurisdictional disputes. This will help prevent an ill
intended party from unnecessarily delaying the proceedings by taking the case to the regular
court. Furthermore, such legislative measure taken on the competence of the tribunal to have
power to rule on its jurisdictional controversy will attract foreign investment and develop the
sector. However, the research finds out that the new Ethiopian arbitration law lacks clarity
concerning the decision of the tribunal on a dispute arising out of its jurisdiction is deemed to be
an award or not. Besides, the law lacks clarity as to whether or not the objection of the party
against jurisdictional decision of the tribunal is considered to be an appeal and the legal status
of the decision made by the first instance court. In addition to that, our law lacks explicit
provision with respect to the material jurisdiction of courts to grant interim measures. As result
of this there is no consistency and predictability between and among various levels of courts in
their decisions. Thus, the law should be amended with the intention of avoiding such ambiguity
thereby dispelling confusion on the matter.
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Keywords
Arbitration, jurisdiction,Separability arbitrability