§ 172.007.Delegation of Certain Determinations

Delegation, with one carve-out.

Whatever the parties may decide, they may hand to someone else. The section covers any issue the parties may determine under this chapter.

Institutions are named expressly, which reflects how international arbitration is conducted in practice.

The delegation is broad. Appointing arbitrators, deciding challenges, fixing the place and the language, and setting the procedure are all things the parties may determine and may delegate.

Adopting institutional rules is itself a delegation. A clause choosing an arbitral institution hands that body a set of decisions the parties would otherwise make.

One issue may not be delegated. A determination under Section 172.102 — the substantive rules of law applicable to the dispute — stays with the parties.

The exception is about who chooses the governing law. Section 172.102(a) directs the tribunal to decide according to the rules of law designated by the parties, and that designation is theirs to make.

Handing that choice to an administrator would change the bargain. The governing law shapes every substantive right in the dispute.

Where the parties make no designation, the tribunal supplies one under Section 172.102(c), applying the conflict-of-laws rules it considers applicable.