The request for Arbitration has to be filed with the Registrar of the Court which is competent by territory as provided for in the Internal Rules.

To identify which Registrar is competent, one has to establish whether the dispute is international or domestic.

Disputes are treated as domestic when all the following conditions occur:

• all the parties are domiciled in or have the nationality of the same State
• the seat of arbitration is located in said State and
• they are governed, as well as these Rules, by the procedural law in force in that State.

If the dispute is domestic, it is handled by the Secretariat of the National Chapter, or by the Secretariat of the Regional division of that Chapter, if it active, if so expressly provided. A Chapter is considered as non active if it is non expressly mentioned in our website. A Regional division is active is it is expressly mentioned in the National Chapters' page of our site in the part dedicated to said National Chapter.

According to our Rules (the Rules) a dispute is international, (i) if the parties have so decided in the arbitration agreement or, (ii) two or more parties of the dispute are not domiciled or have not the nationality of the same State.

If the dispute is international, two Central Registrars are competent, depending on the nationality of the parties involved:

• The International Registrar of Strasbourg (France), if all the parties belong to Europe;
• The International Registrar of Milan (Italy), if one or more parties belong to a country of the Mediterranean or the Middle East, and in any event does not belong to Europe.

The filing of the request for arbitration is made by handing over or by sending the hardcopies by registered mail, courier or other means which provide evidence of such a filing pursuant to the Rules.

The Rules provide guidance for the further development of the arbitral proceedings.