Recent Amendment to the Portuguese Law on Voluntary Arbitration

Abstract

THE PORTUGUESE Law on Voluntary Arbitration (‘LVA’) was enacted by Law no. 31/86, of 29 August 1986 and entered into force on 29 November 1986. Its adoption took place not only as an answer to the need felt in this country by the doctrine and the practitioners of this field of law, but also in the wake of legislative reforms enacted in the field of commercial arbitration in the last three decades in many countries in Europe and other continents. It should be added that the fact that the UNCITRAL Model Law had been adopted in 1985 had a noticeable influence in the preparation of the LVA and in the contents of some of its provisions. The LVA provided Portugal with a statute on commercial arbitration which, for most of its contents, was in tune with the trend set by the legislation adopted in many countries dealing with commercial arbitration, both at the domestic and at the international level. The great majority of scholars, commentators and practitioners in this field of law acknowledged that the LVA was able to meet the requirements of commercial operators for a means of dispute resolution which might be a serious alternative to the use of state courts, which are virtually paralysed by the overwork that has been affecting them to a rapidly growing extent.