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The place of arbitration has important consequences on the arbi-
tration procedure. Considering this importance, it would be on the safe
side to decide on the place of arbitration in light of the expert legal
advice. To begin with, it determines the law governing the arbitration
proceedings, in other words lex arbitri . Within this context; issues such
as the arbitrability, the enforcement of arbitration agreements, and the
involvement of courts in arbitration proceedings are the affected by lex
arbitri. Furthermore, the place of the arbitration defines the “national-
ity” of an arbitral award2. The nationality of the award may be signif-
icant for the enforcement of the award, since New York Convention
enables the signatories to make a reciprocity reservation3.
Preference of Arbitration Seat in ICC Arbitration
Concerning the data of the years 2007-20114, ICC arbitrations
mostly took place in North and West Europe, with 67% of the cases.
Particularly, the most popular arbitration seat is France, with 546 cases.
France is followed by Switzerland with 482 cases and United Kingdom
with 324 cases.
One of the reasons of popularity of France is based on the fact that
ICC’s headquarters are based in Paris. Additionally, the positive atti-
tude of the courts towards arbitration and the fact that there is a court
specialized for arbitration contributes to the preference of practitioners
on this issue5.
Concerning United Kingdom, it should be stated that London is
commonly used as arbitration seat, especially in maritime arbitrations.
In practice, it is seen that London is determined traditionally as seat of
arbitration on most of the bills of lading.
Another quite popular seat of arbitration is Switzerland, especial-
ly the cities Geneva and Zurich. The reasons behind this preference are
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2 Secretariat’s Guide, p. 199.
3 It should be noted that Turkey ratified the New York Convention with two reservations. Firstly,
the Convention shall be applied to commercial disputes; secondly, it should only be applied to
arbitral awards which are given in another state that has also ratified the Convention.
4 Secretariat’s Guide, p. 199.
5 Ziya Akıncı, Why Center for Arbitration in İstanbul?, Journal ofYaşar University, p. 80. Source:
(“Akıncı”).