In early February 2020, the Judiciary of England and Wales published the Commercial Court Users’ Group Meeting Report – November 2019 (“2019 Report”). The 2019 Report provides information and statistics relating to challenges to arbitral awards on the grounds of serious procedural irregularity under s68 and appeals on a point of law under s69 Arbitration … Read more
In the recent case of MPB v LGK [2020] EWHC 90 (TCC), handed down on 23 January 2020, the High Court dismissed an application to set aside an arbitration award on jurisdiction pursuant to section 67 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the “Act”). In a suite of contractual documents incorporated into the parties’ agreement, the … Read more
On January 24, 2020, the Executive Branch of Peru approved the Emergency Decree No. 020-2020 (“Emergency Decree”), introducing amendments to the rules on international and domestic arbitration contained in Legislative Decree No. 1071 (“Peruvian Arbitration Law”). Interestingly, the modifications provided by the Emergency Decree only concern arbitration proceedings in which the State is involved as … Read more
In Rabbi Moshe Avram Dadoun v Yitzchok Biton [2019] EWHC 3441 (Ch), the High Court dismissed an appeal against an arbitral award (the “Award”) of the Beth Din of the Federation of Synagogues in London (the “Beth Din”) under s68 of the Arbitration Act (the “Act”). While there were unilateral and undisclosed communications between a … Read more
In the recent case of Peepul Capital Fund II LLC v VSoft Holdings LLC [2019] UKPC 47, handed down on 19 December 2019 and available here, the Privy Council (on appeal from Mauritius) upheld the decision of the Supreme Court of Mauritius which refused to set aside an arbitral award on the basis of alleged … Read more
On 10 December 2019, almost four years after the Russian arbitration reform of 2016 and one year since the Russian Supreme Court (the “SC“) published its guidance in relation to various issues concerning international commercial arbitration, the SC issued an important resolution relating to arbitration. Resolution No 53 On the fulfilment by the Russian state … Read more
Introduction In a judgment issued on 3 October 2019, the Cour de cassation (French Supreme Court) upheld a Court of Appeal decision setting aside an award as a result of an arbitrator’s non-disclosure. The judgment is a helpful illustration of the scope of arbitrators’ obligations in respect of disclosure once a tribunal has been constituted … Read more
In BSG Resources Ltd v Vale SA and others [2019] EWHC 2456 (Comm), the English Commercial Court (the Court) considered five applications concerning an arbitration award dated 4 April 2019 (the Award) which had resulted in an order of the English court for BSGR to pay damages of US$1.247 billion to Vale (the Enforcement Order). … Read more
In Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Harrison [2019] EWHC 2065 (Ch), the High Court decided that an arbitrator had made an error in law in deciding that he could consider correspondence marked “without prejudice” when deciding costs. However, correspondence that is impliedly “without prejudice” could be taken into consideration. Arbitrators usually have broad discretion when considering costs … Read more
