ABSTRACT
Arbitration is seen as a method to avoid going to the courts when settling parties’ commercial disputes. However, in many cases, parties still seek to invoke the jurisdiction of the national courts even when there is a valid arbitration clause. There are two principles to ensure the effectiveness of arbitral awards: autonomy and competence-competence principles. The “competence-competence” principle provides an arbitration tribunal with the power to decide its own jurisdiction and, at the same time, requires national courts to refer to the arbitration proceedings or preclude a court from addressing the same issue. In Indonesia, this principle has already been embodied in Article 11 (2) of Law No. 30 of 1999 regarding arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. This work will focus on this principle. To what extent does an Indonesian court preclude itself from exercising jurisdiction over matters subject to arbitration? To provide a more comprehensive view, this article will scrutinise relevant cases in an Indonesian court. This work will show that the court attitude creates uncertainty on a jurisdictional issue and reduces the simple efficiency of the arbitral process as one of arbitration’s basic virtues.
