An arbitration clause contained in a construction contract does not automatically extend to settlement agreements subsequently entered into between the same parties to regulate the consequences of the termination of the original contract, where such agreements do not refer to or reproduce the clause itself. In the absence of a specific provision extending its application, the arbitration clause relating to the terminated contract cannot apply to disputes concerning autonomous settlement agreements concluded subsequently.
An arbitration clause provided for in a contract remains without effect with respect to disputes arising from an agreement for consensual termination of the same contract, where such agreement does not contain its own arbitration clause. The plea of lack of jurisdiction of the ordinary judicial authority in favour of arbitrators must therefore be rejected when the action is based on an autonomous contractual instrument subsequent to the contract containing the arbitration clause.