Switzerland is one of the world's leading places for resolving international disputes. The articles collected here explain the Swiss courts, including the commercial courts of Zurich and other cantons, international arbitration in Geneva and Zurich under the Swiss Rules and Chapter 12 of the Private International Law Act, the review of awards by the Federal Supreme Court, and the attachment and enforcement of claims against assets located in Switzerland. They also cover investment treaty protection and the particular questions that arise when the counterparty is a state or a state-owned company.
Switzerland is one of the world's leading places for resolving international disputes. Its courts are reliable, its arbitration law is modern and supportive, and assets held in Switzerland can be attached quickly to secure a claim. Parties from many regions therefore choose Swiss law, Swiss courts or a Swiss seat of arbitration for their international contracts.
For parties from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Switzerland offers a neutral forum that neither side can regard as the home ground of the other. Swiss arbitral awards can be enforced in the many states that are parties to the New York Convention of 1958, and challenges to awards before the Federal Supreme Court are limited to narrow grounds and rarely succeed.
Many of the most important decisions in a dispute are made long before it arises, when the contract is drafted. The choice of governing law, the seat of arbitration, the arbitral rules, the number of arbitrators and the language of the proceedings all influence cost, duration and the chances of enforcing a result against the other party's assets.
Institutional rules offer further choice. The Swiss Rules of International Arbitration are administered by the Swiss Arbitration Centre, and many contracts provide for ICC arbitration with a seat in Geneva or Zurich. Where the debtor holds assets in Switzerland, a creditor can combine arbitration with Swiss attachment and debt enforcement proceedings to secure and eventually collect the claim.
The articles explain Geneva and Zurich as seats of international arbitration, attachment under Article 271 of the Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act, contracting with African states, crypto disputes and asset recovery, and the disputes that arise over trusts and estates.
Trust and estate disputes in Switzerland
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