Enforcement of English awards abroad

Staying enforcement

Once an award arising out of an arbitration with its seat in England has been made, the award becomes enforceable in other jurisdictions by virtue of the New York Convention 1958. Of the grounds upon which enforcement of New York Convention awards can be refused, Article V1(e) of the New York Convention states that enforcement can be refused by the courts of other countries if the award is not yet binding on the parties or has been set aside or suspended under the law of the country in which it was made. This is of no real assistance to the losing party where he seeks to challenge an award in the courts of the country in which it was made. As far as English law is concerned, the award is binding and, until the appeal is upheld, remains so. Accordingly, it would in principle be possible to obtain the enforcement overseas of an English award even though appeal proceedings are outstanding in England. To deal with this problem, the English courts have the inherent power to suspend the overseas enforcement of an English award pending the outcome of all legal proceedings in England in relation to the award. The circumstances in which that inherent jurisdiction should be exercised were considered by HHJ Jack QC in Apis AS v Fantazia Kereskedelmi KFT [2001] 1 All ER (Comm) 348.