In a recent judgment, the English Court of Appeal determined that English courts do indeed have jurisdiction under s44(2)(a) of the English Arbitration Act (“the Act”) to issue an order compelling a non-party to an arbitration agreement to give evidence in support of arbitration proceedings seated both inside and outside England and Wales. In A … Read more
The Hong Kong Court of First Instance has declined to prioritise an arbitration agreement where a debtor intended to dispute the existence of a debt without proving there was a bona fide dispute on substantial grounds. Dayang (HK) Marine Shipping Co., Ltd v. Asia Master Logistics Ltd [2020] HKCFI 311; HCCW 14/2019 Background The parties … Read more
The Hong Kong Court of First Instance dismissed an application to set aside an arbitral award, rejecting claims that the underlying agreement was a sham and that enforcement of the award would be contrary to the public policy of Hong Kong. The Court did not accept that the Defendant had signed the relevant agreement as … Read more
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued a series of judicial interpretations and opinions in December 2019 in relation to the rules of evidence in civil proceedings and further liberalisation of litigation and arbitration practice concerning the Ling-gang Special Area of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. In this post, we will share our thoughts … Read more
The English High Court (the “Court“) has refused to enforce an unchallenged arbitral award because doing so would not be in the interests of justice. In the recent case of David Sterling v Miriam Rand and Morris Rand [2019] EWHC 2560 (Ch), the Court was asked to enforce an arbitral award of the London Beth … Read more
In a decision dated 24 August 2018, the English Commercial Court (the “Court“) dismissed Dreymoor Fertilisers Overseas PTE Ltd’s (“Dreymoor“) application to continue an injunction preventing the enforcement of an order of a U.S. court granting discovery under section 1782 of the United States Code (the “Order“). The Order required one of Dreymoor’s employees to … Read more
Beny Steinmetz Group Resources ("BSGR"), a company based in Guernsey and accused of bribery in Guinea, has been denied permission by a Magistrate Judge of the Southern District Court of New York ("SDNY") to use certain confidential documents. These documents were produced in a lawsuit before the SDNY filed by Rio Tinto, and were sought … Read more
Herbert Smith Freehills has issued its latest Indian International Arbitration e-bulletin. The e-bulletin considers the decision of the Supreme Court of India in Bharat Aluminium, as well as the recent decisions of the Delhi High Court concerning non-disclosure of interests by arbitrators and the power of the court to re-examine evidence under section 34 of … Read more
An amended Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China (the “CPL“) （中华人民共和国民事诉讼法） comes into force on 1 January 2013 and introduces some important changes to the domestic and foreign relation arbitration regimes in China. These amendments include: The introduction of direct applications to the PRC courts for pre-arbitration evidence and asset preservation for … Read more
