Marnix Leijten and Samuel Vermeulen have contributed the Netherlands chapter on International Arbitration to Chambers' Country Practice Guides. The guide provides clients with expert legal commentary on the main practice areas in key jurisdictions around the world, and focuses on the practical issues affecting business.
Prevalence of Arbitration
The Netherlands is renowned for the arbitration of international trade and investment disputes. There are many reasons why the Netherlands is an attractive seat for international arbitrations: as the host state of many international courts and tribunals – including the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Criminal Court, as well as many specialised arbitration institutions – the Netherlands offers a favourable legal and logistical environment for accommodating, administering and conducting international arbitral proceedings. A much-welcomed added benefit of seating arbitral proceedings in the Netherlands is that it has cost advantages over more expensive venues.
Trends
A revision to the Dutch Arbitration Act came into force on 1 January 2015. The revised Act has the intention to boost the position of the Netherlands as a leading arbitration venue for both domestic and international disputes. This development will significantly benefit parties planning to resolve their disputes through arbitration in the Netherlands. Recent years have seen a large increase of arbitration related court litigation in the Netherlands, including setting aside and enforcement issues. Given that the Netherlands is the seat of increasing numbers of investment and commercial arbitrations, and given that many multinational corporations have holdings in the Netherlands that are seen to be attractive for enforcement purposes, this trend is likely to continue.
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