Westzucker GmbH v. Bunge GmbH - Bremer Handelsgesellschaft mbH v. Westzucker GmbH - Court of Appeal (Stephenson L.J., Shaw L.J. and Donaldson L.J.) - 15 May 1981

New procedures for arbitrators under 1979 Act - “Reasoned Award”

The Court of Appeal, in a reserved judgment, has said that it is of the greatest importance that trade arbitrators working under the 1979 Arbitration Act should realize that their whole approach should be different from that previously adopted. They should give their decision and the reasons for that decision promptly at the conclusion of the hearing. No particular form of award was required. All that was necessary was that the arbitrators should set out what, on their view of the evidence, did or did not happen and should explain succinctly why, in the light of what happened, they had reached their decision and what that decision was. That was all that was meant by a “reasoned award”. It was wholly different from an award in the form of a “special case”.