I Introduction

Until comparatively recently, the English courts tended to be jealous of arbitration and to regard arbitrators as rivals to be kept in their place. In the 1856 case of Scott v Avery,2 Campbell LJ advanced the theory that this arose from a desire by the judges to get cases into Westminster Hall. The traditional position was still being pursued in 1922: for instance, Scrutton LJ was indignant in Czarnikow v Roth, Schmidt & Co,3 at the suggestion that the parties to an arbitration might, by agreement, put their chosen arbitrator beyond judicial scrutiny: “There must be no Alsatia4 in England where the King’s writ does not run”.