Comment on Dallah v. Pakistan: Refusal of Enforcement of an ICC Arbitration Award against a Non-Signatory

Abstract

In Dallah v. Pakistan, the English Court of Appeal confirmed the High Court’s refusal to enforce against Pakistan an award rendered against it by an ICC tribunal in Paris, on the basis that Pakistan was not a party to the underlying arbitration agreement. Fuller comment on the case and the issues raised by it is included in the authors’ comments on the High Court judgment in a previous issue of this journal. The present note restricts itself to summarizing the findings of the Court of Appeal, which are similar to those of the High Court (although one of the Court of Appeal judgments contains a much more extensive discussion of the residuary discretion to enforce under the New York Convention), and to commenting on the Court of Appeal’s intriguing obiter dicta concerning the Hilmarton/Chromalloy controversy.