In the third issue of the legal journal “Sport und Recht” (SpuRt) in 2013, Heiner Kahlert and Andreas Zagklis comment on a recent decision of the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT). The decision concerned a request for annulment of an arbitral award by the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT), which was rendered without reasons in accordance with the BAT Arbitration Rules due to the low value of the dispute.
Heiner Kahlert and Andreas Zagklis first provide some explanations on the structure and the special features of the BAT before they comment on the most important issues decided upon by the SFT. In particular, it is noteworthy that the SFT decided that the BAT is a true arbitral tribunal within the meaning of the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA). Furthermore, it should be endorsed that the SFT clarified that there are no objections to be raised against arbitral proceedings being conducted by email, and that email read receipts are a proper way of proving delivery of such communication. Lastly, the authors support the SFT’s view that a request for annulment can be filed also against awards without reasons, even though the scope of scrutiny is necessarily limited.
