Termination of the arbitration agreement

Winding up as a terminating event

The death of a party to an arbitration agreement does not have an automatic terminating effect on the agreement. The personal representatives of that party are entitled to continue the arbitration on behalf of the deceased’s estate, and equally the other party to the arbitration may enforce the agreement as against the personal representatives. All of this is set out in s8 of the Arbitration Act 1996. The consequences of the death of a company are less straightforward. Arbitration proceedings by or against a company in insolvent liquidation will generally be able to continue only with the permission of the court under the terms of the Insolvency Act 1986. However, once the company has been dissolved and removed from the register of companies, the company has ceased to exist as a matter of law, and any participation by it in an arbitration must necessarily come to an end as it is no longer possible for a company to be represented. The problem discussed by Nigel Teare QC, Deputy High Court Judge, in Union Trans-Pacific Co Ltd v Orient Shipping Rotterdam BV [2002] EWHC 1451 (Comm) is the effect on arbitration proceedings of the removal of a company from the register and its subsequent reinstatement.