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21.01.2025 An arbitral award can also be effective if only two out of three arbitrators sign it German Federal Court of Justice – decision dated 11th July 2024 –

An arbitral award is effective if only two out of three arbitrators sign it and a note saying "Signature could not be obtained" is stated as reason for the missing signature

Federal Court of Justice, decision of 11th July 2024 – I ZB 34/23

If an arbitral tribunal decides on a legal dispute, this is done by means of an arbitral award: Such award must be rendered in writing and signed by the arbitrator(s). If several arbitrators decide, then the signatures of the majority of the members of the arbitral tribunal are sufficient, provided that a reason is stated why a signature is missing (§ 1054 (1) sentence 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure).

In the present case, an application for the annulment of the arbitral award was based on the award not being signed by one of the three arbitrators. With regard to the missing signature, it was noted that “the signature could not be obtained”. The appeal court had rejected the application as inadmissible. In the court’s view, there had been no arbitral award at all. The disputed note "signature could not be obtained" did not give a reason for the missing signature pursuant to § 1054 (1) sentence 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The Federal Court of Justice takes a different view: First, based on just the wording, the court states that the note "the signature could not be obtained" does indeed give a reason for the missing signature. In addition, the court substantiates this result with a historical interpretation of § 1054 of the Code of Civil Procedure: according to the wording of the old version of § 1054 (2) sentence 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure (§ 1039 (1) sentence 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, old version), the absence of an arbitrator's signature could explicitly be replaced by a note saying "The signature could not be obtained". The new wording of § 1054 was not meant to abolish this possibility. Finally, the Federal Court of Justice also emphasizes that the background to indicating a reason for the absence of a signature serves solely to show that the signature is not (only) accidentally missing and that it is therefore the final result of the arbitration proceedings. A demand for a more detailed statement of reasons, i.e. why the signature could not be obtained, cannot therefore be derived from the telos of § 1054.1 sentence 2. Consequently, the Federal Court of Justice came to the conclusion that the arbitral award fulfils the requirements of Section 1054 (1) sentence 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure for an effective arbitral award.

The opinion of the Federal Court of Justice is to be welcomed, as it strengthens legal certainty in arbitration proceedings. This prevents the final decision of already time-consuming and costly procedures from being unnecessarily prolonged by an excessively strict application of technical formalities.


Michael Göger, LL.M.


Leinemann Partner gehört zu den führenden Kanzleien für Baurecht, Immobilienrecht und Vergaberecht in Deutschland. Seit der Gründung am 1.1.2000 hat sich die Kanzlei zu einem der Marktführer in diesem Bereich entwickelt und ist deutschlandweit beratend tätig. Die Sozietät hat einen weithin sichtbaren Schwerpunkt bei Infrastruktur-Großprojekten, wie dem Neu- und Ausbau zahlreicher Autobahnen, Bahnstrecken und Wasserstraßen ebenso wie Industrie-, Kraftwerks- und Anlagenbau, Flughäfen, Shopping-Center und von Stadtentwicklungsprojekten. Bekannteste Mandate sind u. a. der Bau des Fehmarnbelt-Tunnels und mehrerer LNG-Terminals, die Batteriefabrik von Volkswagen in Salzgitter, der Neubau der Rheinbrücke der A 1 bei Leverkusen, der Prozess um die ÖPP-Autobahnstrecke der A 1 Hamburg-Bremen und die Anbindung der Offshore-Stromerzeugung auf See über neue Hochspannungstrassen.

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