In Ducat Maritime Ltd v Lavender Shipmanagement Inc [2022] EWHC 766 (Comm), the English High Court set aside part of an award under section 68(2)(a) of the Arbitration Act 1996 on the grounds that an ‘obvious accounting mistake’ by an arbitrator had breached the duty of fairness under section 33 of the Arbitration Act 1996. … Read more

Kei (a protected party by his litigation friend) v Hua She Asset Management (Shanghai) Company Ltd [2022] EWHC 662 (Comm), before Miss Julia Dias QC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Commercial Court). The English High Court restated the principles applicable to a section 103 application under the Arbitration Act 1996 (the … Read more

The Commercial Court has held that a shipowner was entitled to rely on a force majeure clause in a shipping contract where its charterer’s parent company became subject to US sanctions – allowing an appeal from an arbitration award on a point of law under section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996: MUR Shipping BV … Read more

In the recent judgment of T v B [2021] HKCFI 3645, the High Court of Hong Kong observed that “if the Court is the master of its own procedural rules, so should be the arbitral tribunal“. In so doing, the Court reaffirmed the principle that compliance with pre-conditions to arbitration is a question of admissibility, … Read more

On 7 December 2021, the Commercial Court in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. v Katanga Contracting Services S.A.S, [2021] EWHC 3301 (Comm), refused a challenge to an arbitral award brought on the basis of the tribunal’s award of the costs of third party funding to the successful party, finding that it did not constitute a serious … Read more

After rejoining the ICSID Convention in June 2021, Ecuador has made a further contribution to the growth of international arbitration within its borders. On August 18, 2021, President Guillermo Lasso issued Executive Decree No. 165-2021, introducing the Regulations to the Arbitration and Mediation Act (the “Regulations”). Ecuador’s Arbitration and Mediation Act was originally enacted in … Read more

In PBO v DONPRO and others [2021] EWHC 1951 (Comm), the English High Court (the Court) allowed a number of challenges brought by PBO under s68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the Act) against an arbitral award rendered by the Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC) Board of Appeal (the Board). As such, this is an … Read more

In Mount Wellington Mine Ltd v Renewable Energy Co-Operative Ltd [2021] EWHC 1486 (Ch), the English High Court considered a challenge to the jurisdiction of an arbitrator under s. 67 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the Act). The Claimant, a landlord, sought to challenge an arbitral award which upheld the jurisdiction of the arbitrator in … Read more