The Role of National Courts in International Commercial Arbitration in Iranian and French Law

The international commercial arbitration is considered as the best and the most efficient mechanism for the settlement of international trade disputes. Meanwhile, this method of dispute settlement still is not an independent and self-sufficient method because it is exposed to various interferences of national jurisdictions for the purposes of supervising and controlling arbitration or assisting thereto. Although, nowadays, there is an obvious tendency towards confining the interferences of national jurisdictions, playing their role in retaining sovereignty of States and their public order, on the one hand, and maintaining the dignity of arbitration and honor to the free will of parties, on the other, is inevitable. In this essay, in order to be inspired by other States’ experience and practice with respect to the promotion of international commercial arbitration in Iran, the role played by national courts in international commercial arbitration has been compared in the Iranian and French jurisdictions as an example of the States in question.