Comparative Study of Arbitral Awards and Settlement Agreements Refusal Grounds of Relief in Iranian Law and International Provisions

Considering the great success of the New York Convention in encouraging business activists to use arbitration as a dispute resolution method, the United Nations drafted Singapore Convention on International Commercial Settlement Agreements, of which Iran is a signatory country. One of the most important issues in determining the level of executive support of the said conventions for the settlement agreements and arbitral awards is the examination of grounds for refusing to grant relief of the said treaties' documents, which in fact deprives some arbitral awards and settlement agreements from the executive support of these treaties. This article examines the grounds for refusing to grant relief to the implementation of the New York and Singapore Conventions in the following analytical subjects: "Specific Refusal Grounds of the New York Convention for Supporting the Arbitration Agreement", "Specific Refusal Grounds of the New York Convention Due to the Importance of the Seat in Arbitration", "Refusal Grounds Related to Terms and Conditions of Settlement Agreements in Singapore Convention " and "Refusal Grounds Related to Features and Behavior of Mediator in Singapore Convention". Finally, this article concludes that some refusal grounds of the New York Convention that are not covered by the Singapore Convention are originated from differences between arbitration and conciliation and the Singapore Convention's approach to delocalization and not mentioning rules about agreement to mediate. It also found that many of these grounds were unnecessary and would disorder the implementation of the Singapore Convention and the development of the conciliation in the future. Of course, the approach of the Convention is due to the conciliation's lack of reputation between several countries, and the drafters of the Singapore Convention considered it necessary to mention these provisions in the text of the Convention in order to achieve the consensus of the countries.