Switzerland — A Location For International Arbitration

Manuel Arroyo is an attorney-at-law and partner with meyerlustenberger in Zurich, as well as an established author on the subject of arbitration. Here, Dr. Arroyo shares his thoughts with us on business in Switzerland.

WHERE DO MOST INTERNATIONAL CASES IN SWITZERLAND COME FROM AND WHY?

The vast majority of cases concern disputes on international commercial contracts between two (or more) non-Swiss companies. For the reasons set forth below, Switzerland is (and always has been) one of the most often chosen arbitration venues.

Moreover, Swiss substantive law is (along with English law) the most often chosen law in international commercial contracts. As a result, it makes sense to choose Switzerland as seat of the arbitration since the arbitrators deciding the dispute and the parties' counsel will necessarily have to be familiar with Swiss law. In other words, Swiss practitioners will have to be retained – both as arbitrators and as counsel to the parties.