For over ten years, BCLP have conducted an annual survey on issues affecting the arbitration process. This year’s survey focuses on the reform of the English Arbitration Act 1996, a topic chosen to coincide with the Law Commission’s ongoing consultation on reform of the legislation. One of the aims of the Law Commission’s review is to enhance the experience of those who choose to arbitrate in England and Wales, and to maintain English law as a gold standard in international arbitration. There is no doubt that London is a popular seat of arbitration, regularly topping polls as parties’ preferre ..read more

In a recent set aside action, the Singapore Court of Appeal (SGCA) has once again demonstrated its pro-arbitration stance. Being a Model Law jurisdiction, the Singapore courts will only set aside arbitral awards on limited grounds, for example, for breach of Singapore’s public policy and breach of natural justice. In CEF and other v CEH, the SGCA had the opportunity to consider whether the “no evidence rule” should be adopted as a specific rule of natural justice such that an arbitral award would be liable to be set aside for breach of natural justice if it contains findings of fact made ..read more

At the height of the pandemic, in or around the first quarter of 2021, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Arbitration Centre (ADGMAC) published a set of guidelines to provide procedural and logistical assistance on the conduct of remote and semi-remote hearings in international arbitration, known as the “ADGMAC Protocol for Remote Hearings ”. Being a soft law instrument, this Protocol is not binding and as such is subject to party autonomy. The Protocol may be used for guidance in merits hearings or be adapted for use in procedural case management conferences depending on the parties’ and the ..read more

In a recent ruling (see Case Nos 78 and 96/2022, ruling of the Dubai Court of Cassation), the Dubai Court of Cassation has put an end to speculation about whether or not oath-taking is mandatory in arbitration conducted under the Law No. 6 of 2018, the UAE Federal Arbitration Law (FAL). Before adoption of the FAL, which entered into force on 6 June 2018, witness evidence in UAE-seated arbitrations, whether fact or expert, had to be tendered under oath pursuant to article 211 of the UAE Arbitration Chapter. Article 211 contained an express oath-taking requirement, providing as follows: “th ..read more

In the first post-Brexit case concerning the interface between arbitration law and consumer protection law, the Court of Appeal (CA) in Soleymani v Nifty Gateway LLC partially overruled the lower court’s earlier ruling declining a stay of court proceedings in favour of arbitration. The decision’s impact on consumer arbitration in the UK remains to be seen. Facts The claimant, Mr Soleymani (S), took part in an auction held on the defendant Nifty’s crypto trading platform for a non-fungible token associated with the artwork Abundance by the artist Beeple. Because of alleged non-payment of the bi ..read more

The first mission of NASA’s Artemis Program, Artemis 1, launched on 27 September 2022. The Artemis Program seeks, among other things, to re-establish a human presence on the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, as well as to establish sustainable exploration of the moon with both commercial and international partners by 2028. We may be at the beginning of what has been called the “lunar gold rush”, where natural resources in outer space will be explored and extracted. This, however, poses a legal dilemma. Who will have the property rights to these natural resources? Wit ..read more

Last week, the Law Commission published its first consultation paper as part of its review of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the “Act”). The stated aim of the review has been to ensure that the Act remains “best in class”: an approach based upon fine-tuning, rather than root and branch reform. This is borne out by the consultation paper, which proposes relatively few changes. Nonetheless, the paper contains some notable and very welcome proposals for change and clarification, which we outline and comment on below. Confidentiality The Law Commission has provisionally proposed that the Act should not ..read more

Now that the dust has settled following the Achmea, Komstroy, Micula and PL Holdings judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), in which it banned intra-EU investor-state arbitration disputes (ISDS) based on bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) within the EU, the wider, decentralised implementation of this ISDS ban is becoming increasingly visible. Arbitral tribunals still hold their position despite Green Energy award With the exception of the recently issued Green Power award, which is so far the only award that accepted the Achmea based EU law ju ..read more

The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) recently published its annual report for 2021, highlighting the progress made by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on its path towards becoming a globally recognised arbitration seat. Since the current Saudi Arbitration Law (Royal Decree No. M/34) came into force on 7 July 2012, efforts have continued to ensure that arbitration is a catalyst for improving the business environment and enforceability of contracts that Saudi Arabia is promoting as part of its Vision 2030. There were a number of discussion points identified in the report but of p ..read more

Not every case begins with the declaration that “this is an odd case”. An application under section 67 of the English Arbitration Act 1996 to contest the jurisdiction of the tribunal is normally brought against claims by one’s opponents. However, Sea Master v Arab Bank concerned a section 67 application by the claimants (together “Sea Master”) that claims which they themselves had brought were outside the jurisdiction of the tribunal. It is also odd for a second reason. That is because the claimant’s case was that the claims they were seeking to challenge fell outside the ambit of the rel ..read more