The
question of the power to bind a company is one of the classic problems in both
domestic and international arbitration law. In order to take into account
recent evolution in the law, this article analyses this issue by reviewing the
various means by which a company can thus be bound. The starting point is the
normal situation where a company has expressly consented to arbitration by
providing power in valid form to its representative to submit a dispute to
arbitration. Thereafter, one gradually distances oneself from this model in
order to demonstrate that a company may also be bound by a
person who holds no formal power, by means of legal mechanisms. Finally, the agreement
to arbitrate is occasionally recognised without anyone having presented himself
as signatory to the clause acting on behalf of the company, i.e. in the
hypothesis of a complete lack of authority, as can be illustrated in particular
by the artifice of the extension of the arbitration clause. By means of this
review, the methods and autonomy of arbitration law will once again be
discussed, since these directly involve the relationship between arbitration
and its voluntarist foundation, and the extent of its autonomy by reference to State
courts.