NEWSLETTER-2017

163 ARBITRATION LAW of separability, and the scope of the arbitration agreement should be determined as per the Swedish law, which was the law of the seat of arbitration 15 . The Turkish Supreme Court confirmed in 1995 that the law of the seat of arbitration was applicable to the arbitration agreement 16 : “ In the event that a choice of law has been made between the parties, the validity of the arbitration agreement shall be determined in ac- cordance with the law of the seat of arbitration which is Bulgarian law in the case at hand. ” In some ICC awards, the validity of the arbitration agreement is determined by the law of the seat of arbitration 17 . In some awards, it is confirmed that the parties’ choice of the seat of arbitration is also the implicit choice of law applicable to the arbitration agreement 18 . In 2005, the German Maritime Arbitration Association stated that the parties did not make a choice of law, and in default of a choice of law by the parties, the agreement shall be governed by the law of the seat of arbitration pursuant to the New York Convention since the parties’ countries of origin are both signatories to the New York Convention; therefore, the law applicable to the arbitration agreement itself would be German law, which is the law of the seat of arbitration 19 . Application of the State Laws and International Principles to the Arbitration Agreement Some state laws determine the national law or internationally accepted principles, such as the principle of good faith, as the law applicable to the arbitration agreement. The clear provisions of the laws of Switzerland, Spain, Iran and Turkey refer to their national laws 15 Please see: Swiss Supreme Court decision dated 21 March 1995, XXII YBCA 1997, p. 800-806. 16 Please see: The decision of the 19th Chamber of Supreme Court dated 15.11.1995 and numbered 1995/9108 E. 1995/9685 K. 17 Please see: ICC Award no. 4392, Collection I, p. 473 et seq. 18 Please see: ICC Award no. 5730, Collection II, p. 415. Please also see the com- ments of Yves Derains on ICC Award no. 4392, Collection I, p. 475-476. 19 Please see: The German Maritime Arbitration Association award dated 8 Novem- ber 2005, XXXI YBCA 2006, p. 66-71.