Arbitration

Section 8(1) of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 provided that the third party was to be treated as a party to the arbitration agreement with regard to disputes between himself and the promisor relating to the enforcement of the substantive term by the third party. It was thus not in respect of all disputes arising out of or in connection with the agreement that the third party was to be treated as a party to the arbitration clause, but only disputes relating to the enforcement of the particular substantive term of which the third party had the benefit. Neither the language of the Arbitration Act 1996 nor the language of the 1999 Act justified a stay extending beyond the dispute so far as it concerned the entitlement of the third party to avail himself of the contractual defence. That would give rise to the wholly unsatisfactory prospect of