Arbitration Law Monthly

In Mur Shipping BV v Louis Dreyfus Company Suisse SA [2019] EWHC 3240 (Comm) Cockerill J considered the standard charterparty wording whereby all available supporting documents must be produced within 12 months from the completion of the charter, failing which the claim is discharged.

The decision of the Court of Appeal in Minister of Finance and Another v International Petroleum Investment Co and Another [2019] EWCA Civ 2080 addressed important issues of principle relating to the curial powers of the High Court. The main point in essence was whether it was permissible for the parties to agree that any dispute as to the validity of an arbitration award was to be determined by a further arbitration rather than by the English courts.

The decision of Clare Ambrose, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, in Sterling v Rand [2019] EWHC 2560 (Ch) contains much thoughtful and complex analysis of the circumstances in which the court may refuse enforcement of a domestic arbitration award under section 66 of the Arbitration Act 1996. Important and previously unresolved points are made about a number of the sections of the 1996 Act.

In Buda Pipe Rehab Engineering Co Ltd v CPC Construction Hong Kong Ltd [2019] HKCFI 503 the Hong Kong Court of First Instance has considered the grounds upon which an appeal from an arbitration award on a point of law should be granted. The case is discussed by Edward Liu, Legal Director, Hill Dickinson Hong Kong.