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ARBITRATION LAW

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agreement is not clearly stated and the principle contract is subjected to

any law other than Turkish law, the arbitration agreement shall not be

affected by said chosen body of law and the validity of the arbitration

agreement shall be directly evaluated pursuant to Turkish law.

Therefore, where a dispute arises to which AIA applies (disputes in

which the parties select Turkey as the place of arbitration or they accept

the application of AIA despite the fact that the place of arbitration is a

different country), the arbitration objection to be asserted before other

states’ courts shall be resolved in accordance with Turkish law

Assertion of Invalidity of an Arbitration Agreement during an

Action for Annulment

The invalidity of an arbitration agreement is regulated as grounds for

annulment in several national and international legal texts. Pursuant to

Art. 34(2)(a)(i) of UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial

Arbitration, an arbitral award may be set aside only if said arbitration

agreement is not valid under the law to which the parties have subjected

it or, failing any indication thereon, under the law of the state where the

annulment is requested. In the event the annulment of the arbitral award is

requested from the Turkish courts, the judge, in accordance with Art. 4/3

of AIA, shall evaluate the substantial validity of the arbitration agreement

according to the law to which the parties have subjected it or, failing any

indication thereon, according to Turkish law.

Assertion of Invalidity of an Arbitration Agreement before the

Court of Enforcement

In Turkey, as in many other states, the recognition and enforcement

of arbitral awards is conducted in accordance with the Convention on

the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards dated 1958

(“New York Convention”). Art. V(1)(a) of the New York Convention

states that the request for enforcement may be refused if the arbitration

agreement is invalid in accordance with the law to which the parties

have subjected it or, failing any indication thereon, under the law of the

In this case, it might be required that application of Turkish law is not contrary to

lex fori