Preamble.

The Chamber of Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration of Occitanie’s Ethics Charter on Arbitration and the Federation of Arbitration Centers’ Ethical Charter on Arbitration, signed and adopted by the Chamber, constitute the common base of the present Code of Ethics of the Chamber of Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration of Occitanie. The provisions of the Code of Ethics shall not be subject to conventional adjustments. 

Article 1. Lack of conviction 

1. Anyone filing for an application for registration in the Chamber of Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration of Occitanie’s arbitrator list shall fulfil the following conditions:

1. provide Bulletin No.3 of his criminal record;
   
2. declare in a sworn statement to have never been subject to conviction or prosecution for acts contrary to honour, probity, and good morals giving rise to a disciplinary or administrative sanction of dismissal, radiation, revocation, withdrawal of approval or authorisation;
   
3. declare in a sworn statement to have never been sanctioned by a prohibition to manage a business or a commercial company.

Article 2. Incompatibilities  

1. Any person filing for an application for registration in the Chamber of Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration of Occitanie’s arbitrator list shall not assume or accept a function or a mandate that is incompatible with his mission as an arbitrator.

2. Is notably incompatible with the mission of the arbitrator:

• the function of magistrate, as provided for in Ordinance No. 58-2020 of December 22nd, 1958;
• a parliamentary mandate, as provided for in law n°2013-906 from 11th October 2013;
• the public service, unless the public official is authorised by the hierarchical authority to which he reports, as stated in Article L.123-7 of the French General Code of the Public Service;
• law professors when they act in an unfavourable manner towards the State.

Article 3. Competence  

1. An arbitrator shall possess the necessary skills and qualities for the exercise of his mission.

2. From April 30th 2021, anyone wishing to apply for registration in the Chamber’s arbitrator list shall either prove a confirmed practice of arbitration or a University diploma from the Chamber and Toulouse 1 Capitole University. 

3. Anyone applying for registration on the international arbitrator list shall prove the conditions required in 4.2, as well as a perfect knowledge of the language of proceedings. The arbitrator shall mention in his application which language(s) he is apt to intervene in.  

4. Anyone applying for registration on the expert list shall prove his technical skills. In the context of a sole arbitrator, the expert shall justify the conditions required in 4.2, as well as his technical skills. In the context of an Arbitral Tribunal composed of multiple arbitrators, the expert shall only prove his own technical skills. 

5. Arbitrators mentioned in 4.2 shall follow training offered by the Chamber, at least once a year.

Article 4. Availability and diligence  

1. Any arbitrator shall be responsive to the Chamber’s requests, especially for emergency requests. 

2. The arbitrator shall meet the requirements of availability and diligence as they are mentioned in Article 2-1 of the Federation of Arbitration Centers’ Ethical Charter 

Article 5. Declaration of independence and impartiality  

1. When an arbitrator accepts a mission, he shall fill out the acceptance slip, to which he shall attach his declaration of independence and impartiality provided in the appendix to the slip.

2. The prospective arbitrator shall attest to: 

1. present guarantees of independence, impartiality, celerity, availably, and diligence necessary to arbitral activity;
2. respect the Code of Ethics, composed of the present  Ethics Charter on Arbitration and the Federation of Arbitration Centers’ Ethical Charter on Arbitration.

3. The prospective arbitrator shall disclose any circumstance likely to affect his independence or impartiality. This disclosure obligation shall last until the rendering of the award.

4. If the prospective arbitrator has already intervened within the Chamber in proceedings in relation to the same case, he shall inform the parties and the Chamber and shall not accept the mission. 

Article 6. Update obligation  

1. Arbitrators shall report to the Chamber any change in circumstances or information. 

Article 7. Reserve duty 

1. The arbitrator shall, upon acceptance of his mission as well as after his mission has ended, observe a duty of reserve towards the parties, their representative(s) and any other third-party that has intervened in arbitration in any capacity whatsoever.  

Article 8. Communications with parties  

1. All communications between the Arbitral Tribunal and the parties shall be made by the President of the Arbitral Tribunal, the Secretary, or the Arbitration Committee of the Chamber.

2. Òutside of hearings, unilateral communications between an arbitrator and a party are forbidden. 

3. Notwithstanding 8.2., unilateral communications shall be allowed if the Arbitral Tribunal has mandated one of its members to carry out an investigative measure.

4. Notwithstanding 8.2., with regard to experts, for the imperative need for the proper conduct of the arbitration-expertise, unilateral communications may be allowed by the expert Tribunal. A directory of unilateral communications shall be kept by the arbitrator, who shall inform the Chamber.  

Article 9. Review of the awards

1. No award shall be rendered by a sole arbitrator without having first been submitted for review by the Arbitration Committee.

2. No award shall be rendered, in the context of international arbitration, without having first been submitted for review by the Arbitration Committee.

3 The Arbitration Committee may prescribe modifications in form.

4. The Arbitration Committee may, while respecting the freedom of decision of the Arbitral Tribunal, draw its attention to points relating to its substance.

Article 10. Ethics Committee

1. A party, an arbitrator, or any other member of the Chamber may refer to the Ethics Committee when one considers that an arbitrator has not complied with the Rules of this present Code of Ethics.

2. Members of the Ethics Committee are: the Dean of the Executive Board of the Chamber, the   General Secretary of the Chamber, as well as the Vice-President of the Chamber responsible for monitoring proceedings.

3. If it is proven that an arbitrator has not complied with the Rules of the present Code of Ethics, the Ethics Committee, ex officio or after referral, may pronounce:

1. a warning;
2. a suspension;
3. the replacement of the arbitrator in all ongoing proceedings;
4. a deduction from the arbitrator’s fees;
5. the removal of the arbitrator from the Chamber's list of arbitrators.

4. To carry out its assessment in the event of a suspected conflict of interest, the Ethics Committee may draw inspiration from any relevant legal instrument, in particular the International Bar Association on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration Guidelines.

Article 11. Duties and liability 

1. In accordance with Ethics obligations, arbitrators shall act in good faith, be courteous, diligent, available, and loyal, and shall render their decisions as soon as possible.

2. An arbitrator enjoys liability immunity for all acts or omissions performed in the exercise of his judicial decision-making, so that he shall only be liable for his personal fault which must be equivalent to fraud, constituting fraud, gross negligence or a denial of justice.

3. Arbitrators, the Chamber and its personnel shall not be liable to anyone for any fact, act or omission relating to arbitration, except to the extent that such limitation of liability is prohibited by applicable law.

4. The arbitrator’s mission shall only be exercised by a legal person enjoying the full exercise of his rights. The prohibition of civil rights is an obstacle to the appointment of an arbitrator.

5. In the context of an Arbitral Tribunal composed of multiple arbitrators, despite the lack of contractual link between the arbitrators, each is subject to a duty of care to his co-arbitrators. 

Article 12. Insurance 

1. The Chamber’s arbitrators shall provide the Chamber with an insurance certificate specific to arbitration activity.

2. In ad-hoc arbitration, arbitrators shall provide the Chamber with an insurance certificate specific to the arbitration activity.

3. The Federation of Arbitration Centers has subscribed to a professional civil liability policy. This either allows to supplement the contracts of professions already insured or offers an independent and complete guarantee.

The Chamber shall benefit from the professional civil liability policy the Federation of Arbitration Centers has subscribed to.  

4. The Chamber shall subscribe to a professional civil liability policy different from the one the Federation of Arbitration Centers has subscribed to. Members of the Chamber and arbitrators shall benefit from it.

Article 13. Technical means  

1. Any arbitrator shall have an email address which he shall communicate to the Chamber. 

At the parties’ request, exchanges may be made via secure messaging services. In this case, the arbitrator shall have a secure email address.

2. Before accepting any mission, the arbitrator shall make sure he has the technical means required by the proceedings. 

Article 14. Dispute resolution  

1. Any dispute arising between the Chamber and an arbitrator shall be subject to mediation. 

The same applies to any dispute arising between the Chamber and a party.

2. The dispute shall be settled by a third-party mediator, at the expense of the party or the arbitrator.

3 The mediation shall take place at the Chamber of Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration of Occitanie: 10, boulevard d’Arcole - 31000 TOULOUSE.

4. The mediator chosen by the Chamber shall be [ ____________ ].

Article 15. Arbitration fees  

1. For all arbitration, institutional or ad-hoc, taking place under the aegis of the Chamber, the latter shall collect the administrative fees, the provision of as well as the payment of the arbitrator’s fees.

2. The Chamber shall return the Arbitral Tribunal its fees, from which shall be deducted a contribution to the institutional costs (see Appendix relating to the applicable scales).

3. The Arbitral Tribunal’s fees shall be exclusively determined by the Chamber according to the scales indicated in the Arbitration Rules’ Appendices. 

4. The Arbitral Tribunal shall refrain from any inconsiderate and unnecessary expense likely to increase the cost of the proceedings.

5. In the event of a payment incident or failure of the parties, the arbitrators shall not, under any circumstances, engage the Chamber’s liability.

Article 16. Protection of personal data 

1. All processing of personal data shall be done in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR).