Arbitration

Section 70(2) of the Arbitration Act 1996 was primarily about the order in which a party could turn to an arbitral process and court proceedings. The essential policy was not to exclude the court process altogether, but to deal with the risk of concurrent proceedings in the court and the arbitral process. Section 70(2) barred a person’s access to the court only if and to the extent that he had himself limited access by vesting powers in an arbitral process whether by making an arbitration agreement or by participating in an arbitration. The natural implication of the Act was that s 70 of the Act governed all challenges under s 67 of the Act. The test whether an arbitral process was exhausted was flexible and fact-specific.