Arbitration Law Monthly

Edward Yang Liu, Senior Associate, Reed Smith Richards Butler, Hong Kong, discusses a recent landmark ruling in China enforcing an award given in Hong Kong.

In A v B [2017] EWHC 596 (Comm), Christopher Butcher QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, considered and rejected a series of challenges to an award under section 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996, alleging serious misconduct. As is typical of such cases, the court found no merit in any of the challenges.

Where there is an appeal against an arbitration award, the court has power under section 70 of the Arbitration Act 1996 to order the applicant to provide security for costs (section 70(6)) and also security for the award itself (section 70(7)), failing which the application can be dismissed. The conditions to be satisfied for the making of an order (section 70(7)) were discussed by Sir Jeremy Cooke in Erdenet Mining Corporation LLC v ICBC Standard Bank plc and Others [2017] EWHC 1090 (Comm); [2017] 2 Lloyd's Rep 25.