NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

144 NEWSLETTER 2019 position. Thirdly, for a joinder to be affected, there must be an existing arbitration. Filing a new arbitration using Article 7 as its basis is not allowed. In light of this information, the provisions of Article 7 are examined, below. There are four subparagraphs in Article 7. The first subparagraph covers the request for joinder (“RfJ”). It sets out how an additional party may be joined to an existing arbitration. The second subpara- graph details the content of the RfJ. The third and fourth subparagraphs deal with the references to the request for arbitration and answer to the request for arbitration and set out the mutatis mutandis application of relevant articles, as they have common points as with the RfJ, and answer thereto. Firstly, an additional party may be joined by any of the parties (claimant, respondent or an additional party). Although it is conceiv- able that the claimant might address the request for arbitration to all relevant parties from the outset of arbitration, and there may be no need to allow the claimant to join an additional party, it is possible that during the course of the proceedings, the circumstances might give rise to the need for the claimant, as well. The party wishing to join an additional party shall submit its re- quest for arbitration to the Secretariat against the party which it wished to join, and this request is defined as a request for joinder. The legal effects of a RfJ are equivalent to those of a request for arbitration. The date on which the RfJ is received by the Secretariat shall, for all purposes, be deemed to be the date of the commencement of arbitra- tion against the additional party. Thus, once the RfJ is submitted to the Secretariat, the additional party, immediately and automatically, becomes a party to the arbitration. This rule is different than the ICC 1998 Rules, under which the Court must, firstly, decide whether to join an additional party to the arbitration. The additional party may be any third party who is not already a party to the arbitration. Although that third party becomes an ad- ditional party to the arbitration, immediately and automatically upon submission of the RfJ, this does not mean that it will remain as such. As per the reference to Article 6(3)-6(7) and 9 of the ICC Rules, the