4. Arbitration agreement

In this Act, “arbitration agreement” means an agreement by the parties to submit to arbitration all or certain disputes which have arisen or which may arise between them, whether contractual or not.

An arbitration agreement may be in the form of an arbitration clause in a contract or in the form of a separate agreement.

An arbitration agreement shall, except as provided for in subsection (4), be in writing, being contained in —

Where in any arbitral or legal proceedings, a party asserts the existence of an arbitration agreement in a pleading, statement of case or any other document in circumstances in which the assertion calls for a reply and the assertion is not denied, there is deemed to be an effective arbitration agreement as between the parties to the proceedings.

A reference in a bill of lading to a charterparty or other document containing an arbitration clause shall constitute an arbitration agreement if the reference is such as to make that clause part of the bill of lading.