The Constitutional Values Of Arbitration Agreement’s Effectiveness Extension

In the modern rule-of-law state, both the civil procedure and the arbitration are important parts of dispute-settlement mechanism. As one of the private remedy method to solve disagreement, arbitration has been widely accepted and well developed by the society for its unique efficiency. Arbitration agreement is usually the base of arbitration, and in the traditional definition of arbitration, the agreement (contract) is the initial driving force to open the arbitration procedure. But, exactly owing to the confinement of the relativity rule of traditional contract theory, in the constantly changing modern society, the arbitration which should usually be more flexible and efficient sometimes loses its advantages at dispute-settlement. The fact that the arbitration agreement’s effectiveness cannot be extended beyond the agreement sometimes causes unprecedented lawsuit pressure and gravelly irrational allotment of civil procedure resources, therefore results in that the property rights of the partes to the lawsuits cannot be well protected, which is contrary to the arbitration law’s original aim of justice and efficiency. To restore the arbitration to its proper function in the whole system of dispute settlement, we should first return to re-examining the base of arbitration--the arbitration agreement. To extend the effectiveness of the arbitration agreement, besides making it binding to the parties who signs on the paper, it should also be binding to other parties related to the lawsuit, thus preventing the result that the case which shall be treated with in one dispute-settlement system cannot be well resolved just because of imperfection of law rules.To expound this point, this article starts with arbitration itself, systematically analyzing the essential point viewing the agreement as the base of arbitration; then elaborates upon the basic theory of arbitration agreement’s effectiveness expansion by breaking through the barrier of the classic contract theory; and consequently reaches the conclusion that the expanding the effectiveness of the arbitration agreement has a significant and positive impact upon the fulfillment of constitutional aims including enhance of society efficiency, rational exercise of rights and a harmoniously stable society. This article consists two main parts besides the preface and epilogue. The former part mainly elaborates on the important relationship between the arbitration and constitution, first summarizing the arbitration mechanism and arbitration agreement, then introducing the theory of contract’s effectiveness expansion, and thirdly demonstrating this theory with its background, theoretical basis and practical operations. The latter part specifically expounds on three dimensions upon how the effectiveness expansion embodies the constitutional values. Firstly, on the judicial rights allotment dimesion, the agreement’s effectiveness expansion, beneficial to enhancing the society’s efficiency, is in conformity with the constitutional value of rational rights arrangements; secondly, on the effective assurance of legitimate interests, it is advantageous to the people’s exercise of constitutional rights and the protection for the private property rights; thirdly, it is helpful to the harmony and stableness of the society in a rule-of law environment.