Request For Revision Of Interim Award Based On Subsequent ICC Disqualification Of Two Arbitrators Refused

Case Numbers: 4A_288/2023 and 4A_572/2023 (11 June 2024)

Request for revision of interim award based on subsequent ICC disqualification of two arbitrators refused

In two recent French-language decisions both rendered on 11 June 2024 and slated for official publication, the Swiss Supreme Court dismissed two requests for revision filed by NIOC against a US$32 billion ICC interim award based on the successive disqualifications by the ICC of two of the arbitrators in the underlying arbitration for circumstances that postdated the award.

The Supreme Court held, in both decisions, that, to justify the revision of an award under article 190a(1)(c) of the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA), the ground for challenge of an arbitrator must have existed at the time of the issuance of the award. The occurrence of a ground for challenge of an arbitrator after the award was rendered does not, of itself, constitute a ground for revision of the award.