Switzerland in ICC Arbitration

The 2024 ICC Dispute Resolution Statistics once more confirm Switzerland’s leadership in international arbitration. Owing to the liberal approach of the Swiss legal system towards arbitration, its political stability and neutrality, as well as its world-class facilities for international proceedings, Switzerland has played a prominent role in global arbitration for decades. Geneva and Zurich are frequently chosen as seats even in cases where none of the parties has a direct connection to Switzerland.

In 2024, the ICC registered 841 new cases worldwide.

Switzerland’s performance in focus:

• Third most-popular seat: With 83 cases, Switzerland takes third place globally among the most frequently selected arbitration seats. Geneva and Zurich alone accounted for 11.3% of all ICC arbitrations.
• Swiss law highly chosen: Swiss law was applied in 60 cases, making it one of the top three most-selected governing laws, and the leading choice among civil-law jurisdictions.
• Strong representation of Swiss arbitrators: In 2024, 97 arbitrators of Swiss nationality were appointed, representing 6.8% of all appointments globally - ranking Switzerland fourth worldwide.

Arbitrators - Most frequent nationalities

Places of arbitration - Ten most frequently selected cities 

Choice of law 

In cases registered in 2024, English law was the most frequently selected lex contractus with 125 cases (15% of new cases), followed by the laws of a US state (69), Swiss law (60), Brazilian law (44), and French law (42). The laws of Mexico and Germany (35 cases each), Spain (34), Italy (27), the United Arab Emirates (22), and Qatar (21) completed the top 11 applicable laws.