Court Cases Contribute To Development Of Arbitration Law

Due to the various amendments to the Arbitration Act 2005 (the 2005 Act) throughout the years, the Malaysian courts have been occupied with interpreting the provisions in the arbitration act and developing the laws of arbitration. The following court cases illustrate this progression.

East or west Malaysian high court

Background

Malaysia is made up of Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) and Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia). While the 2005 Act and its amendments apply throughout Malaysia, this does not mean that the term "High Court" in the 2005 Act refers to both the high courts in West Malaysia and East Malaysia.

Decision

In settling the issue of which high court (ie, Kota Kinabalu High Court in East Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur High Court in West Malaysia) has supervisory jurisdiction to hear an application to set aside an arbitration award, the Federal Court¹ looked at where the seat of arbitration was determined by party autonomy and decided that: