Arbitration Law Monthly
Enforcement of New York Convention awards: jurisdictional challenges
In PAO Tatneft v Ukraine [2020] EWHC 3161 (Comm); [2021] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 240 Ukraine contested the enforcement of an arbitration award under the New York Convention on the ground that there had been illegality which prevented a valid submission to arbitration. The questions for Sir Andrew Smith were whether Ukraine was precluded from raising illegality as a defence by reason of abuse of process (in that it had not been raised in earlier proceedings challenging the award on the ground of state immunity) and waiver (in that the issue had not been raised before the tribunal).
PAO Tatneft
: the facts