@thefromthetree
Lo que sigue es un resumen en inglés de la Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo de 27 de junio de 2017. En español, aquí.
The parties to the lawsuit (a company and a bank) entered into a Spanish Banking Association Master Agreement for Financial Transactions (known as a CMOF), the standard terms and conditions of which included a clause for submission to arbitration. The company started legal proceedings seeking to invalidate certain swap and put contracts signed under the CMOF. The bank applied to the court for an order declaring that it has no jurisdiction due to the submission to arbitration. This application was rejected in the first instance and on appeal.
The bank lodged an appeal with the Spanish Supreme Court for breach of process, under article 22.1 of the Spanish Arbitration Act (Ley de Arbitraje). It argued that (i) once application is made for the court to decline jurisdiction due to the submission to arbitration, the judge can only make a prima facie judgment on the arbitration clause, as it is the arbitrators who have to decide whether they have jurisdiction (the kompetenz-kompetenz principle), and (ii) the submission to arbitration clause has been misinterpreted, by considering that the invalidity of the swap and put contracts was not subject to arbitration.
Regarding the first point, the Spanish Supreme Court cautions that there are two theories on the extent of the kompetenz-kompetenz principle: (a) a “strong theory” (maintained by the bank), according to which judges must limit themselves to a superficial analysis of the arbitration clause and, if there is such a clause, the challenge against the court’s jurisdiction must be upheld so that it is the arbitrators who decide on their own jurisdiction; and (b) a “weak theory” according to which judges must make a complete examination of the validity, effectiveness and applicability of the arbitration clause, and if they consider that it is not valid, they will reject the challenge against the court’s jurisdiction and continue hearing the case.