Enforcement of awards

The New York Convention 1958 lays down the mechanism by which an arbitration award obtained in one contracting state may be enforced in all other contracting states. The general principle set out in the Convention is that the enforcing court is, exceptional circumstances aside, required to treat the award as valid and binding and to be enforced. There are, however, various situations in which the court may refuse enforcement. The Arbitration Act 1996, which implements the Convention in England, sets out these grounds in more or less the language of the Convention itself. There is little authority on the refusal of enforcement. The decision of the Court of Appeal in Kanoria v Guinness [2006] EWCA Civ 222 discusses the exercise by the court of its jurisdiction to enforce an award, even though a ground of challenge has been successfully made out.