Content of an Arbitration Agreement

An arbitration agreement may be an arbitration clause in a contract or a separate agreement reached in any other written form before or after the occurrence of a dispute whereby the parties agree and undertake to refer the dispute to arbitration.

An arbitration agreement shall contain:

(1) a manifestation of mutual assent to refer to arbitration. The parties must make an express statement of the willingness to refer to arbitration in the arbitration agreement, which constitutes a waiver of their right to litigation unless the arbitration agreement is held invalid; 

(2) the issues to be arbitrated. The issues that can be referred to arbitration are restricted, and the Arbitration Law excludes two types of unarbitrable issues, i.e., issues relating to family, marriage, divorce, adoption, succession, etc., and issues which fall under the jurisdiction of administrative authorities. And the differents and conflicts between employers and employees, i.e., labor disputes, shall be submitted to arbitration by the labor arbitration commission under the competent labour bureau. Except the above, all the other disputes arising from or relating to contracts or over property and economic interests of parties with equal legal status can be arbitrated; 

3) the arbitration commission selected. The name of the arbitration commission or institution must be correct and precise to avoid any subsequent dispute. For example, "shall be submitted to arbitration by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission in Beijing". 

It should be noted that it is not sufficient to agree on the arbitration rules without stating the exact name of the arbitration commission or institution, as an arbitration commission may apply the rules of any other commission. 

It should also be noted that the parties may not agree that their disputes may be resolved either by arbitration or by litigation. In such a case, the arbitration agreement will be held invalid.