Husky Oil V Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology: Compelling Non-Parties To Arbitration

It is a truism that arbitration is fundamentally a consensual mode of dispute resolution, meaning that only the parties to an arbitration agreement can be compelled to arbitrate. Something that is somewhat less clear, however, is the extent to which third-party beneficiaries to contracts are able to sue or be sued on such contracts. It is at the intersection of these two issues that a further, compelling question arises - as to what extent third parties to an arbitration agreement can also be compelled to arbitrate in circumstances where they are beneficiaries to the underlying contract.

In that regard, many commentators were somewhat surprised by the decision of the Alberta Court of King's Bench in Husky Oil Operations Limited v Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology Inc, 2023 ABKB 545 that a third-party beneficiary to a contract can be bound by the contract's arbitration agreement, given that this conclusion seemingly led to an obligation to arbitrate in the