Arbitration - Autoridad del Canal de Panama v Sacyr

The claimant and the defendants entered into guarantees which were subject to English law and exclusive jurisdiction. Subsequently, the parties entered into a further guarantee and agreed that any disputes under that guarantee would be determined by ICC arbitration in Florida. Broadly, the same dispute arose in respect of both sets of guarantees and one of the issues in this case was whether the English proceedings brought by the claimant should be stayed because they were "in respect of a matter" which it had been agreed would be referred to arbitration (a stay would be required under section 9(1) of the Arbitration Agreement 1996 if they were in "in respect of a matter" which should be arbitrated).