The Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Greece

Abstract

‘An arbitrator goes by the equity of a case, a judge by the strict law, and arbitration was invented with the express purpose of securing full power to equity.’1 Aristotle, Rhetorica I, 13, 1374b From the classical times of Greece2 until the 19th and 20th century codifications in Europe3, the practice of arbitration always represented an alternative to the judicial settlement of disputes. Its operation and its objectives varied in the course of time according to the relevant socioeconomic surroundings and even today it is ‘an institution more easily identified than defined’4. In the twentieth century, the constant increase of international transactions presented the necessity for an appropriate device of settling the disputes that arose out of them. The desire for flexibility, economy and privacy, together with the knowledge of the special laws and customs that apply to international relations, were the main elements...