Limits To Extension Of The Arbitration Agreement In Cyprus

As a rule, arbitration is 'a creature of contract' and the proper parties to arbitration are those who have concluded an arbitration agreement or a wider contract containing one. This rule is evident in various international and national law instruments such as Article II (2) of the New York Convention, section 5 of the English Arbitration Act, and Article 7 of the International Arbitration Law L 101/1987 applicable in Cyprus. Nevertheless, arbitral tribunals and courts sometimes enforce arbitration agreements or awards upon or allow access to arbitration by non-signatories to the arbitration agreement. The aim of this article is to analyse this issue and present a recent Cypriot judgment in which the court declined to extend the arbitration agreement to a non-signatory.