Jurisdiction: appeals against refusal to give permission to appeal

Where there is an appeal to the High Court against an award on the grounds of want of jurisdiction, under section 67 of the Arbitration Act 1996, section 67(4) states that there can be an appeal to the Court of Appeal against the judge’s decision only if the judge himself gives permission to appeal. However, there is a limited exception in that principle, which operates where the judge has not reached a decision at all on the application for permission to appeal.

That might be because there was no valid decision on the appeal itself, or no valid decision on the application for permission to appeal. In those situations the Court of Appeal may grant declaratory relief to the effect that there had simply not been a determination by the judge. It will be appreciated that this is not so much an appeal against the judgment – which is not permitted by the 1996 Act – but rather a request for an order that there was no proper judgment in the first place.