A Round Up Of Commercial Arbitration In 2022: Key Developments You Should Know

1. Third Party Funding: recoverability and regulation

In Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. v Katanga Contracting Services S.A.S, [2021] EWHC 3301 (Comm), the Commercial Court considered a challenge to an arbitral award under s68 of the Arbitration Act on the grounds that the tribunal's award of the successful party's costs of third party funding constituted a serious irregularity. The Court refused the challenge, finding that the tribunal had not exceeded their powers or wrongly exercised their discretion in awarding third party funding costs. The case provides some clarity on whether an award of third party funding costs in arbitration constitutes a serious irregularity under the Act. However, it is important to note that the English court was not asked to rule on whether such fees are recoverable in arbitration as a matter of English law: i.e. whether it should be open to an arbitral tribunal to award third party funding costs in the first place. Given that there is