Under the Portuguese Arbitration Act, the parties may authorise the arbitrators to decide the dispute submitted to them according to equity, rather than according to the law. As there is debate among Portuguese commentators on arbitration law about the extent to which the arbitrators so empowered can depart from the law, this article seeks to contribute to the elucidation of that issue. Moreover, with respect to international arbitrations, the Arbitration Act allows the parties to authorise the arbitrators, instead of deciding the case according to the law, to settle it according to equity or by acting as “amiable compositors”, which raises the question of whether “amiable composition” under Portuguese law should be understood as being the same as arbitration in equity or if it is a different institution (a tertium genus).
Journal of International Arbitration