The place of multiparty commercial arbitration under Ethiopian law

Abstract

Multiparty arbitration is crafted in a way that can satisfy the interest of parties that involved in currently circumventing complex commercial transactions resulting from interdependency of international commerce and globalization. From the international experiences, the arbitration community has made various efforts to cope up with the complexities of multi-party disputes. Yet, Ethiopia’s arbitration law is not lucky enough to share from this chalice. From the close reading of arbitration law of Ethiopia, 1960 Civil Code (CC) and the 1965 Civil Procedure Code (CPC), it is easy to notice that multi-party arbitration is not given proper attention. Neither CC nor CPC, provides for the possibility of joinder, intervention and consolidation of arbitral proceeding. The only vacuum for the possibilities of multi-party arbitration under the Ethiopian arbitration law is via arbitration agreement. Again, the leading arbitration institution in the country, Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Association Arbitration Institution (AACCSA), institutional rules has not also paid sufficient attention to multi-party arbitration. Beyond the recognition of the possibility of multi-party arbitration via arbitral submission, and regulation of appointments of arbitrators in multi-party disputes, we could not find any other provision that regulates the issues of joinder, intervention and consolidation of arbitral proceeding. Owing to the meager attention given by the Ethiopian arbitration law, the author argues for the proper facilitation of multi-party arbitration in our context because of various reasons. First, since multiparty dispute is the fruits of globalization, our country cannot exclude itself from globalization and the conundrum of multi-party disputes. Second, the construction industry in which the issues of multi-party dispute is common are substantially increasing. Finally, the current move of Ethiopian government towards the privatization of big companies has also a tendency to increases the possibility of multi-party disputes.