Dallah : Conflicting Judgments from the U.K. Supreme Court and the Paris Cour d’Appel

Abstract

In Dallah v. Pakistan, the English and French courts reached contradictory views on the enforceability of an award rendered against the Government of Pakistan: the English courts held that an ICC tribunal sitting in Paris had been wrong to assume jurisdiction over the Government of Pakistan, a non-signatory of the relevant arbitration agreement; the Cour d'appel de Paris, by contrast, upheld the arbitral tribunal's finding that it had jurisdiction. This is despite the fact that the English and French courts all sought to apply French law to this question. This article examines the reasons for these contradictory views, including the fundamentally different legal cultures of England and France.