Originally from Arbitration Law of Turkey: Practice and Procedure

CHAPTER 16

TERMINATION OF ARBITRATION

Principally the arbitration terminates after the final award is made. The mandate of the arbitral tribunal terminates with the termination of the arbitral proceedings. However, there are some other events that cause an arbitration to terminate. The following events would terminate an arbitration proceeding without an award.

16.1 WITHDRAWAL OF THE CLAIM

The claimant may withdraw his claim at any point during the proceedings, and this terminates the arbitration. If the sole arbitrator or the arbitral tribunal recognizes a legitimate interest of the Respondent in obtaining a final settlement of the dispute, then the award may be rendered rather than directly terminating the arbitration proceedings.

Under Turkish law, the withdrawal of the claim by the Claimant means that the consequences of starting the arbitration are retroactively terminated; as such the statute of time is not cut off due to the arbitration1. One should note that withdrawing a claim is not a waiver of the claim2. In withdrawal, the Claimant reserves its right to make a claim again whereas in waiver the claimant acknowledges that it no longer has the right to make the claim.

TIAC explicitly provides that the Claimant may withdraw the claim. In principal, the Respondent would agree to the Claimant’s withdrawal and the arbitration would terminate. However, in some circumstances, the Respondent may object to the withdrawal of the claim and its effect of termination. This will generally be the case where the arbitration proceeding is almost completed; the Respondent may prefer an award to be rendered so as not to be faced with another arbitration at a later stage. In such circumstances the Respondent may ask the arbitrators to make the award despite the Claimant's decision to withdraw the claim.