Section 69 appeals on a point of law
The Arbitration Act 1996 route from a London award to the Commercial Court: the permission test, what counts as an error of law, and why so few succeed.
Section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 allows a party to a London arbitration to appeal to the court on a question of English law arising out of an award, unless the parties have agreed to exclude it. Permission is required, and the statutory test is demanding: the question must substantially affect the rights of a party, must have been one the tribunal was asked to determine, and the tribunal’s decision must be obviously wrong or the question one of general public importance on which the decision is at least open to serious doubt.
It matters disproportionately in shipping because arbitration awards bind only their parties, so section 69 is the only route by which a charterparty point becomes binding precedent. The full article will cover the permission test, the distinction between an error of law and a finding of fact, the exclusion agreements that shut the route off, and the shipping decisions that came through it.