Can we help you organize your
arbitration hearing in Brussels?

By using the form below, you can share your needs with our team in order to ensure the fullfilment of your expectations with regards to venues and/or services.

We will first ask you 1. some contact details, 2. to select between the services you need (meeting rooms, accomodation, interpreters, court reporters and travel), 3. to confirm that the provided information may be sent. Our team will then make the necessary local contacts among our selected service providers to allow them to send you their tailored offer(s) in due time. We will keep monitoring their responsiveness, but you will always remain entirely free to select the best offer(s) and finalize the deal with our partners, including the payments.

Your advantages provided by the platform: venues and service providers pre-selected by arbitration practitioners, a completely free support through the platform, a one-stop-shop to help you organize in the most effective manner an arbitration hearing at the heart of Europe.

WHY CHOOSE BRUSSELS FOR YOUR ARBITRATION SEAT

The most experienced and serious players in international trade and investment have a profound preference for international arbitration. Indeed, benefits of international arbitration over litigation are numerous and include speed, privacy and some control on the selection of the arbitrator who can be an industry expert. In a nutshell, international arbitration can mean better-quality justice. Therefore, these companies will use an arbitration clause in their cross-border contracts, in order to settle the potential disputes to be arbitrated rather than pursuing court litigation.

For commercial contracts, there is a variety of rules of arbitration that the contractual arbitration clause can refer to, like those of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution of the American Arbitration Association (“ICDR”), the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), the rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) and the rules of the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (CEPANI). For investment arbitration, it is most often the rules of the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) or the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) rules that are used.

The regime for challenges to an award at the seat of arbitration can be crucial

For parties to fully benefit of the advantages of international arbitration and get the relief of the enforcement of the arbitration award, beyond the quality of the agreed arbitration institution, what will matter most is as well the regime for challenges to an award at the seat of arbitration. It is the reason why some jurisdictions are avoided, because of the risks that an award could be challenged too easily before the national courts.

Brussels has everything parties can expect from the arbitration laws and local courts

Indeed, since the harmonization of the Belgian legislation on arbitration with the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law in 2013, the place of Brussels has everything parties can expect from the arbitration laws in traditional and competitive places like Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Austria. The arbitration law in Belgium offers very few grounds for setting-aside proceedings and has been designed for minimal court interference, while arbitration-related matters will be dealt by judges familiar with arbitral procedures.

Choosing Brussels as the seat for your arbitration makes business sense

With a modern and arbitration-friendly law, Brussels offers a unique cosmopolitan environment with a extraordinary density of international law firms offices, geographically centered between the most important European business cities and, last but not least, a very reasonable cost-of-living in comparison with the close metropolises.

> Let us help you organize your hearing in Brussels (Our platform provides the opportunity to respond to the needs of arbitration practitioners for organizing a hearing in Brussels. All venues and service providers have been carefully selected by local arbitration practitioners in order to meet the international standards.)

BRUSSELS,
THE EUROPEAN ARBITRATION HUB

Brussels has everything it takes to make an excellent seat of arbitration. Its state-of-the-art arbitration law, international character, multi-language services and modern conference facilities, as well as its first-class hotels and restaurants provide an excellent context for a swift and cost-friendly resolution of all your commercial disputes. This PLATFORM provides the opportunity to respond to the needs of arbitration practitioners for organizing a hearing in Brussels. All venues and service providers have been carefully selected by local arbitration practitioners in order to meet the international standards.

At the heart of Europe

Capital of Belgium, home to several important EU institutions and international organizations, such as the WCO, NATO, Eurocontrol or the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, host to the European or regional headquarters of numerous multinational companies: there is no doubt that Brussels can be considered as the beating heart of Europe.

Brussels' advantages include a multilingual workforce, its central geographical location and its abundance of high-speed rail and air travel connections to numerous destinations around the world.

The city enjoys the presence of a large international community, where more than one third of the population is non-Belgian and where no less than 104 different languages are spoken, with a massive presence of professional translators and interpreters, experienced in working in an international context.

Last but not least, the city boasts a wide array of conference and business meeting facilities, as well as a large selection of first-class hotels and restaurants.

Arbitration in Belgium

Belgium, located in a thriving economic region comprised of the Benelux countries, France, Germany and Great Britain, has always understood the full importance of international commerce and global cooperation.

As one of the founding members of the European Union and a signatory to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the country has proven itself to be a strong advocate of international trade and arbitration.

Accordingly, detailed English documentation on Belgian legislation is easily available. Belgian lawyers are often appointed as arbitrators by well-known international arbitration centres such as the ICC or the London Court of International Arbitration; many of them feature in international rankings listing the world’s best arbitrators.

Furthermore, numerous international law firms with a specialist arbitration department have an office in Brussels, while more than 10 % of the Brussels bar is composed of foreign lawyers.

Belgian Arbitration Law

The Belgian Arbitration Law of September 2013, updated as recently as 2016, is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, and hence, it greatly favours the practice of arbitration.

It complies with the most modern standards of international commercial arbitration. Where there are differences from the UNCITRAL Model Law, it is generally because Belgian law grants more power to the arbitrators and more freedom to the parties.

The core principle of the Law is that parties are free to select their seat, language, arbitrators and rules of the arbitral proceedings (CEPANI, ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL or other).

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Our offices:

Stuiversstraat 8 rue des Sols 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Do you need support?

E-mail: office@brusselsarbitrationhub.eu Phone: +32 2 515 08 35

Can we help you organize yourarbitration hearing in Brussels?