Illegality - RBRG Trading V Sinocore International

Case Alert - [2018] EWCA Civ 838

Court of Appeal sets out guidelines where enforcement of an arbitration award is challenged on basis of illegality

Section 103 of the Arbitration Act 1996 provides that the enforcement of a New York Convention arbitration award may be refused if it would be "contrary to public policy" to enforce the award. Prior cases have refused enforcement where there had been illegality relating to the underlying claim. In this case, a judge dismissed the claimant's application for enforcement of an award to be refused. The claimant appealed, arguing (amongst other things) that the judge had failed to apply the correct illegality test and should have applied the Supreme Court's approach in Patel v Mirza which, broadly, introduced a more flexible approach than just whether a party's case relied on his own fraud.