Article 23Competence of Arbitral Tribunal to Rule on Its Jurisdiction

①An arbitral tribunal may rule on its own jurisdiction (meaning the authority to carry out proceedings in an arbitration procedure and to make an arbitral award; hereinafter the same applies in this Article), including a ruling on any allegations on the existence or validity of an arbitration agreement.

②In an arbitration procedure, an allegation that an arbitral tribunal does not have jurisdiction must be made promptly after the occurrence of the cause for the allegation if the cause has occurred during the course of the arbitration procedure, or, in any other case, an allegation must be made by the time of submission of the first written allegation on the merits (including the time of orally making the first allegation on the merits in oral hearings); provided, however, that this does not apply when the arbitral tribunal finds justifiable grounds for a delay in making an allegation that the arbitral tribunal does not have jurisdiction.

③A party may make the allegation referred to in the preceding paragraph even if the party has appointed an arbitrator, or has made a recommendation for an arbitrator or otherwise similarly participated in the appointment of an arbitrator.

④If the allegation referred to in paragraph (2) has been made lawfully, an arbitral tribunal must rule on the allegation by the decision or arbitral award provided for in the following items for each category of ruling set forth in those items:

⑤If an arbitral tribunal has ruled that it has jurisdiction in its independent decision made before an arbitral award, a party may petition a court to rule on whether the arbitral tribunal has jurisdiction within 30 days of receipt of notice of the decision. In this case, even if a case related to said petition is pending in the court, the arbitral tribunal may continue the arbitration procedure and make an arbitral award.