The Incorporation Of An Arbitration Clause In Commercial Contracts

Although adhering to arbitration is based on the parties' autonomy of will as well as on contractual freedom, formal incorporation of arbitration into Mexican legislation as an alternative mechanism to dispute resolutions had its origin in 1993 with the amendment of the Mexico Commercial Code, according to which the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration was adopted. However, there wascstill certain legal void derived from the fact that the Constitution contemplated one legal procedure only as a means for dispute resolution. In this regard, Article 17 established that "every person hascthe right to be administered with justice by courts ...", which led to the interpretation that the right to claim in court certain benefit without the need to submit to an arbitration procedure (even if it had been previously agreed upon) prevailed, since there was a fundamental right that should be guaranteed by