Generelt om afvisning. I 1. pkt. fastslås, at retssag om tvister, der efter aftale mellem parterne skal afgøres ved voldgift, efter påstand skal afvises fra domstolene.73 Undtagelse herfra gøres, hvis voldgiftsaftalen er ugyldig, eller voldgiftssagen af andre grunde ikke kan gennemføres. Som flere gange fremhævet er voldgift baseret på parternes aftale, og § 8 tjener til at sikre at aftalen overholdes derved, at staten afviser at lade dom- stolene afgøre tvisten i strid med voldgiftsaftalen. Om partsautonomien og dens grænser kan mere generelt fra England henvises til DAC-Report para. 19, hvor det herom udtales: »(P)arty autonomy. This reflects the basis of the Model Law and indeed much of our own present law. An arbitration under an arbitration agreement is a consensual process. The parties have agreed to resolve their disputes by their own consequences. Firstly, the parties should be held to their agreement and secondly, it should in the first instance be for the parties to decide how their arbitration should be conducted. In some cases, of course, the public interest will make inroads on complete party autonomy, in much the same way as there are limitations on freedom of contract. Some matters are simply not susceptible of this form of dispute resolution (eg certain cases concerning status or many family matters) while other considerations (such as consumer protection) may require the imposition of different rights and obligations. Again, ..., there are some rules that cannot be overridden by parties who have agreed to use arbitration. In general the mandatory provisions are there in order to support and assist the arbitral process and the stated object of arbitration.« Bestemmelsen rejser naturligt spørgsmålet om kravene til vedtagelse og prin- cipperne for fortolkning respektive udfyldning af voldgiftsaftaler. Det skal fremhæves, at vedtagelse og fortolkning principielt er to adskilte spørgsmål, hvilket dog ikke altid synes overholdt i praksis. Vedtagelse vedører således alene, om der overhovedet er aftalt voldgift eller ej, hvorimod fortolkning omfatter selve voldgiftsaftalens saglige og tidsmæssige udstrækning.
