Your client gives you a contract and tells you that the counter-party has materially breached the agreement and amicable resolution is no longer an option. The contract includes an arbitration clause and there is no question that the dispute arises thereunder. However, the clause calls for arbitration before an institution that does not exist. What should you do?
The impetus for this column was the recent decision in Spineway SA v. Strategos Group, No. 22-mc-00604-JLH (D. Del. Mar. 1, 2024), in which parties acknowledged that they had agreed to arbitrate their dispute, but disagreed about the arbitral institution and corresponding rules. The contract said: “Any dispute resulting from or relating to this Promise will be resolved via a final decision issued in accordance with the Mediation and Arbitration Rules of the Geneva International Chamber of Commerce…”
