Arbitration of intra-corporate disputes (A Comparative Study in the Legal Systems of Iran and the England)

Commercial companies as legal entities consist of various departments. As in some cases the interests of members or directors of a company’s departments may develop into a conflict, disputation are duly expected. Accordingly, the attempt to propose a practical solution to solve such cases has been a significant concern in company Law. Among the existing solutions, arbitration has always been a well-received one because of its advantages. Nevertheless, considering the unique characteristics of companies and the multiplicity of departments, the practice of this solution has faced several challenges and ambiguities particularly as far as the concept and criteria of internal disputes and arbitrability are concerned. Bearing these points in mind, this study examines the arbitration in intra-corporate disputes in the legal systems of Iran and the England. Concepts like intra-corporate dispute, scope of arbitration, and barriers to arbitration are delineated in the first step. The findings of this study suggest that within the Iranian legel system arbitration of intra-corporate disputes is subject to the general rules of corporate law and arbitration law due to lack of specific laws while in the England the jurisprudence, in some cases, examines both the status of arbitration in a company’s internal disputes and the identified obstacles. Also, it gives the concerned parties considerable amount of authority to take advantage of arbitration. Moreover, it takes structural barriers, public policy, restrictions on the type of compensation, and conflict with the rights of third parties as the most significant obstacles to the practice of arbitration in these cases.