The Netherlands Commercial Court: the international hub for arbitration

The Netherlands Commercial Court: the international hub for arbitration

Ancillary court proceedings

The Dutch Code of Civil Procedure (DCCP) explicitly allows parties to initiate court litigation needed before, during or after the arbitral proceedings. This includes the enforcement and setting aside of an arbitral award and interim and protective measures, such as pre-judgment attachments, preparatory evidence gathering (hearing witnesses or ordering an expert investigation) and interim remedies provided by the court in summary proceedings.

The NCC as hub for arbitration

• The unique aspect of proceedings before the NCC District Court and the NCC Court of Appeal (NCC) is that they are conducted entirely in English. Procedural documents, the proceedings, and the judgment are all in English. This facilitates parties who conducted their arbitration proceedings in English to continue these proceedings before the courts (for example by initiating a claim to set aside an arbitral award) in English as well.
• The duration of arbitration-related proceedings at the NCC is less than 3 months. Claims to set aside an arbitral award take longer.
• The NCC charges a flat court fee depending on where the action is initiated. See the applicable rates.

Arbitration List

For the names and bio’s of the NCC Court of Appeal judges dealing with arbitration-related proceedings see the list of arbitration judges.

Conditions for NCC jurisdiction

For the NCC to deal with arbitration-related proceedings four requirements must be fulfilled:

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• the Amsterdam courts must have jurisdiction, as the NCC is a chamber of the Amsterdam District Court and Amsterdam Court of Appeal. If the jurisdiction is based on a choice of forum, the Amsterdam courts also have jurisdiction where the domicile of the opposing party or the place of enforcement is located outside of Amsterdam (Article 25 Brussels I-bis Regulation).
• the parties designate the NCC as the appropriate chamber (see the model clause).
• the place of arbitration is Amsterdam.* This is merely a legal concept: the arbitration hearings may take place anywhere in the world.
• the dispute must concern a legal relationship which is within the autonomy of the parties to agree. This condition may be problematic in the context of arbitration, but The prevailing opinion in Dutch literature** is that all arbitration-related proceedings fulfil this requirement. The Dutch legislator removed any doubt by introducing Article 1064a DCCP which provides for the NCC Court of Appeal to have jurisdiction to deal with claims to set aside an arbitral award.

Netherlands Arbitration Institute

To allow for ancillary proceedings at the NCC the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (based in Rotterdam) recently amended its arbitration rules by designating Amsterdam as the default place of arbitration (nai.nl/model-arbitration-clause- You are leaving Rechtspraak.nl).

Footnotes

* This requirement only applies where the request is for enforcement (Article 1062 DCCP), setting aside (Article 1064a DCCP), suspension (Article 1066 DCCP) or revocation (Article 1068 DCCP) of the arbitral award or for revocation, suspension or reduction of a penalty imposed by an arbitrator (Article 1056 DCCP).

** Asser Procesrecht/Sanders, Meijer & Ernste 8, 2023/371