Cases Under The 1996 Arbitration Act

Introduction

The new English Arbitration Act 1996 has now been in force for almost two years. This is perhaps a convenient time to review the manner in which the courts have been applying the Act. A selection of the more important cases decided under the new arbitration law is reviewed below.

(a) Stay of Legal Proceedings - Section 9

Perhaps the best known of all cases, and one of the earliest decided under the Act, is Halki Shipping Corporation v Sopex Oils [1998] 1 WLR 726. The Court of Appeal had to apply section 9, which provides that, where a contract contains an arbitration clause, any court proceedings which are brought must be stayed unless the arbitration agreement is null and void, inoperative or incapable of being performed.