Originally from International Arbitration Law and Practice, Third Edition

17.1. Internal and External Procedural Issues

The applicable procedural law must be identified.1

“Where the parties have failed to choose the law governing the arbitration proceedings, those proceedings must be considered, at any rate prima facie, as being governed by the law of the country most closely connected with the proceedings.”

A useful distinction amongst the issues that arise from the procedural law of arbitration is due to highly reputed commentators on conflicts:2

“In essence, the procedural law of an arbitration deals with two sets of issues: (a) the internal procedure of the arbitration itself: commencement of the arbitration, appointment of arbitrators, pleadings, provisional measures, evidence, hearings and awards and (b) the external intervention of national Courts in the arbitral process.”