APPLICABLE LAW COVENANT. HOW THE LAW CHOSEN BY THE PARTIES MUST BE APPLIED

Abstract

This note refers to an appeal for annulment of an arbitration award, in which, according to the plaintiff, the intervening arbitrator departed in his decision from the law agreed upon by the parties. Chamber D of the National Court of Commercial Appeals of the Federal Capital ruled, in a divided ruling, that the arbitrator had not deviated from the applicable law agreed upon by the parties. In the agreement, the parties had agreed to apply Argentine law, meaning the Civil Code of Vélez Sarsfield and not the Civil and Commercial Code. In its decision, the majority held that the institution of the pactum de non petendo had been applied by doctrine and jurisprudence, thus finding reception in Argentine law. Likewise, the reference to the Civil and Commercial Code made by the arbitrators did not imply a departure from the selected applicable law, taking into account that said regulatory body regulates the law applicable to the case in a similar way to the derogated Civil Code.