Arbitration agreement or service contract on dispute resolution

Arbitration agreement plays a vital role in arbitral proceedings, because the absence of arbitration agreement will lead to the invalidity of arbitral proceedings. Firstly, arbitration agreement figures out the name and type of the arbitration mechanism, then it clarifies parties’ requirements relating to the arbitration procedure including substantive law for the merit, procedural law for the arbitration proceedings, language of arbitration, number of arbitrators in the tribunal, locality of arbitration etc. In its essence, arbitration agreement not only describes the parties’ autonomy but also serves as a service contract (service contract on dispute resolution), accordingly arbitration organ will supply service on dispute resolution for parties. Unlike normal service contracts, autonomies of parties in service contract on dispute resolution, which indicates that arbitration organ is the service supplier, are established in two divergent stages. In the event of specific circumstances, although arbitration agreement has validity, the arbitration organ can refuse to become a service supplier.