Originally from European International Arbitration Review

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I.    Introduction

Parties often agree to include an arbitration clause in their commercial agreements in the expectation that arbitration will allow them to enforce their contractual rights in less time and at less cost than through court litigation, whilst maintaining the dispute and its resolution confidential.  Such expectations might be left unsatisfied if the unsuccessful party challenges the award, once it has been rendered, by way of annulment proceedings before the competent court at the seat of the arbitration.
Where the seat of the arbitration is in Switzerland, non-Swiss parties have the possibility of increasing the finality of an international arbitral award by including an express waiver of their right to challenge the award in the arbitration agreement.  More specifically, Article 192 of the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA)  provides that: 

“(1) If none of the parties have their domicile, their habitual residence, or a business establishment in Switzerland, they may, by an express statement in the arbitration agreement or by a subsequent written agreement, waive fully the action for annulment or they may limit it to one or several of the grounds listed in Article 190(2).
(2) If the parties have waived fully the action for annulment against the awards and the awards are to be enforced in Switzerland, the New York Convention of 10 June 1958 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards applies by analogy.”

Similar provisions exist under a limited number of other national arbitration laws, for example, Article 1718 of the Belgian Judicial Code, Article 1522 of the French Code of Civil Procedure or Section 51 of the Swedish Arbitration Act.