We are pleased to share with you our contribution to the Legal 500’s Dispute Yearbook 2021.
Our article takes a look at the recent English Supreme Court judgements that affect International Arbitration and how this interpreted into the world of arbitration within the GCC region. The cases of Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v 000Insurance Company Chubb [2020] and Halliburton Company v Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd [2020] considered, respectively, the law of the arbitration agreement and the duty upon an arbitrator to disclose potential conflicts of interest. Both of these cases assist everybody involved in an arbitration, be they the parties or their representatives, to understand and consider the position vis-à-vis what laws apply to the arbitration agreement (which could dramatically effect the way in which the matter is dealt with) and the sensitive issues of an arbitrator’s obligation to disclose and the confidentiality of arbitration itself, especially where the duties of disclosure, integrity and confidentially collide.
The lessons to be learnt from these cases will apply equally to common law and civil law jurisdictions as the majority of arbitration within the GCC region use the common law procedure even where the law of the contract is civil law.