London waiting

Arbitration in , governed by the Arbitration Act 1996, has gone from strength to strength over the last decade. However, London’s reign as arbitration capital may be under threat after last week’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in West Tankers that it was inconsistent with EC reg 44/2001 (the successor of the Brussels Convention) for a court of a European member state to make an order (commonly known as an anti-suit injunction) to restrain a person from commencing or continuing proceedings in another member state on the ground that such proceedings are in breach of an arbitration agreement.

The effect of this ruling is that even where a contract provides for arbitration in London and is subject to English law, if proceedings arising out of that contract are brought in the court of another European member state, the arbitration in England will have to wait until the proceedings in the foreign court