Legal liability of arbitration institutions arising from refusal to administer referred cases

As the international sanctions against Iran were tightened between the years 2010 and 2015, with no clear reason or justification, some European arbitration institutions stopped to filing Requests for Arbitration and providing arbitration services to the disputes related to Iranian transactions or Iranian party(ies). From a contractual perspective, this refusal entitles the damaged party(ies) to request for compensation. However, to this aim, a number of assumptions should be first proved, i.e. the existence of a contractual relationship between the parties and the arbitration institution, the occurrence of damage and non-existence of an uncontrollable impediment (such as restrictions imposed by international sanctions). Moreover, considering the nature of services provided by arbitration institutions, the non-contractual liability of these institutions, as well as the possibility of violating the European Non-discrimination Law, are other important issues to be examined. In the present research project, the liability of arbitration institutions for providing services to users and the possibility of reimbursing the damages arising out of refusal to provide such services are discussed. The findings of the research project confirm the possibility of reimbursing the damages by aggrieved parties.