Enforcement of arbitration awards: New York Convention

The New York Convention, which provides for the enforcement of arbitration awards, adopts a two-stage process to such enforcement. First, the applicant must produce the arbitration clause and the award, or copies thereof. Such production entitles the applicant to enforcement unless, at the second stage, the respondent can make good one or more of the defences to challenge set out in the New York Convention.

In England these stages are set out respectively in sections 102 and 103 of the Arbitration Act 1996. Lombard-Knight and Another v Rainstorm Pictures Inc [2014] EWCA Civ 356 was concerned with the first, formal stage: what actually has to be produced before the court has jurisdiction to make an enforcement order?