Foreign Arbitral Awards

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, for more than a decade, scholars and judges of the legal world of international arbitration have been debating if a national court must enforce a foreign arbitral award that has been set aside by the authorities of the country where the award was made. The core issue, the author points out, relates to the identification of the legal order to which the arbitral award, which is being rendered in a given country, is said to belong. The paper presents cases that support showing deference to the judge of the seat and cases that support treating the arbitral award as an international decision. The sources are listed as footnotes instead of in a bibliography.

Table of Contents:
The Case for Showing Deference to the Judge of the Seat
The Case for Treating the Arbitral Award as an International Judicial Decision

From the Paper:

"This is brightly illustrated by a 1999 decision Baker Marine where the Second Circuit declined to enforce two awards made in Lagos, which had been set aside by the Nigerian Federal High Court for various reasons including excess of jurisdiction of the arbitrators and improper award of punitive damages . The US Court of Appeals considered that the parties had chosen Nigerian law to govern both their arbitral proceedings and their substantive rights and that therefore the US public policy on arbitration directed the judges to give effect to the intent of the parties by respecting the outcome of the dispute as decided under Nigerian law."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baker Marine (Nig.) Ltd v Chevron (Nig.) Ltd and Chevron Corp Inc, 191 F.3d 194 (2nd Circ 1999).
• Termo Rio v Electrificadoria Dela Atlantico, Rev. arb. 2007.553.
• J.F. Poudret, "Quelle solution pour en finir avec l'affaire Hilmarton?", Rev. Arb. 1998.7.
• F. Mann, Lex Facit Arbitrum, in International Arbitration, Liber Amicorum for Martin Domke, The Hague, 1967.
• A. Van den Berg, The NY Arbitration Convention of 1958: Towards a Uniform Judicial Interpretation (1981).

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