CIArb's Alexander Lecture on the Dallah Case.

We have earlier posted on the Dallah v Pakistan case here and here and there was some discussion here too.

In this year's Alexander Lecture, President of the UK Supreme Court and CIArb Patron The Right Hon the Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers will analyse the judgments made by the Supreme Court and the Paris Court of Appeal in the landmark case of Dallah v Pakistan.  Lord Phillips will consider why the two courts came to different conclusions, exploring the possible implications for the arbitration community as a whole.

Dallah Real Estate and Tourism Holding Company v The Ministry of Religious Affairs, Government of Pakistan is arguably a case which has been waiting to happen for years. An award rendered in Paris to be enforced in London saw the English courts seeking to determine whether a government could be liable to honour an arbitration award rendered against it in relation to a contract and arbitration clause which did not name it as a party.

As a former eminent arbitration practitioner and President of the Supreme Court, Lord Phillips had a unique front-row seat in the proceedings and is ideally placed to offer his observations on a case which has gripped the arbitration community in recent months.

The lecture takes place on November 16 in London. More information on the event can be accessed here.

Dallah v. Pakistan: The Buzz continues.

According to the latest reports that have been coming, the Court of Appeal in Paris has upheld the award passed by ICC in a dispute between Dallah, a construction company and Pakistan when a challenge was brought by the Pakistan government. Interestingly, the same award was rejected by the UK Supreme Court. The earlier post on this case can be found here.

More to come as the saga further unfolds.

AIJA Arbitration Conference:India

AIJA (Association Internationale des Jenues Avocats/International Association of Young Lawyers) was in India after a long gap of almost 2 decades for a conference. Last time it was there in 1988 & 1992. The conference which spanned for 2 days in Mumbai was on “International Business and Arbitration: Is India Still Different?” was attended by representatives of many national and international law firms and provided an apt platform for people to discuss the two most critical issues for the Indian judiciary and economy. The conference organized by the International Arbitration Commission of AIJA was divided into sessions with excellent speakers and experts as panelists. As the conference theme suggests, there was extensive discussion on Arbitration and Business scenario in India but this report would majorly cover sessions related to Arbitration.

Dallah v. Pakistan: Why The Buzz?

Since, this case promises to be a landmark judgment in current development of international arbitration revolving around the most fundamental concepts of arbitration such as the "principle of competence-competence", "parties to an arbitration agreement" and "enforcement of awards" which is very important for the beginners and advanced learners of arbitration alike, I shall try and put forth this case and issues involved in as simple and defined way as possible.

Lord Collins has already described this as a caseof “International Importance” in the context of interpretation of Article V(1) (a) of theNew York Convention(NYC) whereby an award can be set aside if it is not valid. This case went up till the Supreme Court of UK which affirmed the decisions of the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Also, apart from this case there are only 2 other reported cases where the English courts have refused enforcement of international arbitration awards under NYC, namely Irvani v Irvani,1999 and Kanoria v Guiness,2006.