Part II Consent in commercial arbitration, 7 Scope and Interpretation of Consent to Arbitration

7.01 This chapter examines the scope and interpretation of consent to arbitration. The most frequent issue that arises in the interpretation of international arbitration agreements concerns the ‘scope’ of the parties’ agreement; ie what category of disputes, disagreements, or claims have the parties agreed to arbitrate.1 The importance of this question is given by the fact that the objective scope of the arbitration agreement delimits the arbitral tribunal’s jurisdiction ratione materiae.2 Whether the prayers for relief submitted to an arbitral tribunal are...