Arbitrability under the new Brazilian arbitration act: a real change?

Abstract

Since the enactment of the 1996 Arbitration Act, the arbitrability of disputes in Brazil followed the general rule in which disputes involving disposable patrimonial rights could be submitted to arbitration. In 2015, the Brazilian legislative enacted an Act amending some of the rules of the 1996 Act. The general approach to arbitrability did not change but there was an attempt to introduce provisions to the act regarding the arbitrability of disputes concerning consumer law, labour law, corporate matters, and the participation of the state or state-owned companies in arbitration. The first two efforts failed and the last two prospered. This article explores if the changes made to arbitrability by the new Act were actually necessary in face of the existing doctrinal and jurisprudential understanding of arbitrability of disputes in Brazil. It argues that the general approach to arbitrability already addressed the innovations brought by the new statute. As a result, it asserts that the changes in the law were not a novelty as the approach to arbitrability of disputes in Brazil was already settled by the 1996 Act as well as the case law.