West Tankers 2012: Pro-Arbitration Through Enforcement Of Declaratory Awards

This article was originally published in International Arbitration Law Review, Issue 2, 2012

Introduction

West Tankers' decisions are to arbitration practitioners what JK Rowling novels are to Harry Potter fans: each brings the reader a new insight into their otherwise ordinary world. Readers will recall the 2009 European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision in West Tankers which brought into question the availability and use of anti-suit injunctions (in the European Union) in order to enforce arbitration agreements.¹ The most recent "episode" in West Tankers concerns a 2012 English Court of Appeal judgment on whether an arbitral award in the form of a negative declaration may be entered as a judgment under the terms of s.66 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the Act); the intention being that it may circumvent some of the difficulties posed by the ECJ decision in West Tankers 2009, while adhering to the current position under the Brussels Regulation 44/2001 (the Brussels