Case Alert - [2017] EWHC 2208 (Comm)
Court considers the meaning of giving "proper notice"
of arbitration proceedings
The Russian claimant obtained a New York Convention award
against the English defendant from a Russian arbitral body.
It was given leave by the English courts to enforce the award here.
However, the defendant sought to have that permission set aside on
the ground that "he was not given proper notice of the
appointment of the arbitrator or of the arbitration
proceedings" (section 103(2)(c) of the Arbitration Act 1996).
Blair J has now rejected that argument.
There is little English authority on the meaning of "proper
notice" in this context, but the judge said it was part of the
wider notion that a defendant has been unable to present its case.
He accepted that there had been no specific threat of arbitration
in correspondence between the parties prior to the commencement of
the arbitration.
