A whole new code: the proposed reform of French arbitration law

The debate in the arbitration community was officially opened on 9 April 2025, following the recently published Report and proposals for the reform of French arbitration law at the Sorbonne university, during Paris arbitration week and in the presence of the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin. The proposals were presented in the form of draft articles to consolidate and amend the current legal provisions on arbitration. These were prepared by an ad hoc working group of practitioners and professors, co-chaired by practitioner and academic Thomas Clay and Judge François Ancel of the French Court of Cassation and produced after only four months of deliberations.

The current French law applicable to arbitration is split amongst 23 different Codes and laws, although it is generally found in the Civil Code and a dedicated section of the Civil Procedure Code. The proposals aim to streamline these disparate articles into one specific Code of arbitration, enhancing readability and predictability, as well as introducing other notable reforms.

The arbitration community is invited to participate in the upcoming consultations coordinated by the Ministry of Justice, which is planning to bring into law the reform in autumn 2026.  

Key features of the proposed reform

The reform, as proposed by the working group, would be structured around 4 pillars:

1. A Code of arbitration which would bring together all provisions relating to arbitration in 146 articles, covering the well-known features of French arbitration law as well as innovative additions to underline the autonomy of arbitration and make the law more user friendly.

Innovations which are being discussed include:

• The possibility to obtain enforcement of provisional measures ordered by the arbitral tribunal before the local court juge d’appui (art. 41 of the draft Code). It is not specified at this stage whether that also includes decisions of emergency arbitrators.
• A guiding principle for the prevention of denial of justice (art. 16 of the draft Code).
• In case of impecuniosity, the possibility to ask the juge d’appui to take any necessary measure to allow for the arbitration to take place (art. 33 of the draft Code).
• Confidentiality being codified also with regard to international arbitration (art. 12 of the draft Code), whereas provisions currently only refer to domestic and electronic arbitration. There may well be discussions on this point with regard to the way in which investment arbitration proceedings are dealt with, as the international trend for cases involving treaty claims against States has been towards increased transparency.
• Allowing third parties to intervene against recognition and enforcement of awards (arts. 117 and 129, 81 of the draft Code).
• Clarifying provisions relating to state-owned entities, including making the exequatur procedure and thus any review of awards relating to state-owned entities within the sole jurisdiction of the civil courts in Paris and the Court of cassation (proposal no. 6 and arts. 75 and 79 of the draft Code).

2. The merger of the rules concerning international and domestic arbitration. Currently, different provisions apply to international and domestic arbitrations. The proposal is to move both types of arbitration towards those more liberal principles currently found in the provisions applicable to international arbitration or set out in cases covering international matters. The possibility to appeal an award, which still exists in domestic arbitration (in contrast to international arbitration, where the review of the merits of the case cannot be used as basis for a set aside application) is proposed to be deleted (proposal no. 31 and art. 130 of the draft Code).
   
   
3. Extending arbitrability. Arbitration is extended to fields of law where it has to date been rare by codifying arbitration provisions already found in family, labour and consumer law, while adding specific protective rules to ensure the process is not imbalanced (proposal no. 21 and arts. 131 to 146 of the draft Code).
   
   
4. Streamlining of the rules of procedure before French courts to create autonomous rules in particular before the Paris Court of appeal, which is the court that has jurisdiction for deciding applications to annul international arbitration awards (art. 75, 2° of the draft Code). The bases for an annulment action remain substantially the same as previously. These are very limited, and generally similar to the bases contained for the refusal of enforcement under the New York Convention. The proposed article takes into account the merger of international and domestic arbitration rules in relation to the public order annulment basis (art. 81 of the draft Code). The possibility for parties to renounce their right to bring set aside proceedings, which was introduced during a previous reform to the law, but statistics suggest is rarely exercised, is proposed to be deleted (art. 74 of the draft Code and proposal no. 20).
   
   The rules that are applicable to set aside actions  brought before the International Commercial Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, a specific chamber that was established in 2018 to hear international proceedings in English, are included in the proposed law, including the possibility for lawyers, experts, witnesses and parties to express themselves in English, as well as to produce evidence in English without translation (arts. 111-112 of the draft Code).  

Comment

The working group’s objective was to make French arbitration law more efficient, simple, precise, just and modern. While the practical aspects of the law, notably the proposals to codify a set of laws that are currently contained in a variety of different sources, is groundbreaking, the principles behind the proposed law are generally familiar, not least to international arbitration practitioners (with the reform bringing domestic arbitration closer into line with its international cousin).

The working group set out proposed amendments to the law necessary for the wider arbitration and legal community to consider, discuss and debate. As such, the debate is now open, giving the chance for arbitration users to participate in the crafting of the reform. The first step will be to identify provisions with general agreement by autumn 2025, and then continue the debate and consultations through to the end of the year. These will inform a final draft of the law, which the French Ministry of Justice wishes to see enacted by autumn 2026.

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