Following the Supreme Court hearing in the Halliburton v
Chubb case, Craig Tevendale of Herbert Smith
Freehills in London considers the significance of the Supreme
Court's forthcoming judgment and whether the case will end the
recent controversy on apparent bias.
In a decision that whipped up a storm in the international
arbitration community, the Court of Appeal
decided in 2018 that there had been no apparent bias where an
arbitrator failed to disclose to one of the parties his appointment
in multiple proceedings with different parties which arose out of
the same incident.
This month's Supreme Court hearing of Halliburton's
appeal against that decision was, without doubt, the most
significant English court hearing in arbitration since the case of
Jivraj v Hashwani on arbitrator status in 2011. The
Halliburton judgment, anticipated to be delivered in the
next four to six weeks, should give clarity on legal issues which
are critical to the reputation of London
