The Lunch DIScussions on 8 February 2024 had their finger on the pulse with the topic "Dispute Resolution in the Digital Economy: Are UNCITRAL Rules on e-Awards and Electronic Notices of Arbitration Recommended?"
The results of the discussion will feed into UNCITRAL's future work. And the Draft Bill on the Modernisation of Arbitration Law, which had been available for a week, also includes provisions on electronic awards.
After a welcome by James Menz (DIS) and moderated by Christian Aschauer (University of Graz), Judith Knieper (UNCITRAL) presented the work and mission of UNCITRAL and the current status of the deliberations. Digital arbitral awards have so far hardly been used in practice by the participants who actively contributed to the discussion. According to UNCITRAL, there is a great deal of uncertainty in this area and more legal certainty is desirable. Christa Schwegler (Bavarian Highest Regional Court) explained that the electronic delivery of arbitral awards is already possible under current law. Compared to that, the provision in the Draft Bill that, inter alia, the names of the arbitrators should be included at the end of the award is a step backwards. If an application for a declaration of enforceability of an electronic award is to be served across borders, it must be printed out, but formal service abroad is often lengthy anyway. Dominique Braun (DIS) described the practice of the DIS, which requires a paper version of the statement of claim to commence arbitration. The award is also serviced in paper form.
Although the DIS sends digital copies of awards ("courtesy copies"), these do not trigger any time limits. However, the fact that the losing party refuses to accept the paper award after receiving the digital copy has not been perceived as a practical problem..
Reinmar Wolff