ERDEM-NEWSLETTER-2018-metin

151 ARBITRATION LAW Arbitration Agreements Concluded by Agents and the Specific Authority Issue* Att. Fatih Isik Introduction In order to conclude an enforceable arbitration agreement, vari- ous validity conditions are required. These conditions could be cat- egorized as the merits, capacity, and form requirements. As well, the authority of the signatory agent to conclude an arbitration agreement on behalf of the principal must also be examined 1 . The Requirement of Specific Authority under Country Laws Under Turkish Law, there are significant regulations covering the authority to conclude an arbitration agreement. According to the third subparagraph of Article 504 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, and Article 74 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the agent is required to be specifically and/or explicitly authorized to conclude an arbitration agreement on behalf of the principal. Therefore, an agent authorized with a general power of attorney, but without an explicit statement on the authority to conclude an arbitration agreement, is not entitled to conclude so on behalf of the principal. If an arbitration agreement is concluded by an agent who lacks specific authority, the regulations on unauthorized representation become applicable, which thereby enable the principal not to be bound by the agreement, unless he so ratifies. Consequent to these provisions, the arbitral tribunal’s authority may * Article of October 2018 1 Işık, Fatih : Authority to Conclude Arbitration Agreements in International Com- mercial Arbitration and the Law Applicable to this Authority, On İki Levha, Is- tanbul 2015. This article was co-authored with Tilbe Birengel and published first in the September 2017 Newsletter of the Istanbul Arbitration Centre. Erdem, Ercüment : Requirement of Specific Authority for Representatives to Arbitrate in Turkish Law, Erdem & Erdem Newsletter, December 2014.