From Florence to London via Moscow and New Delhi: How and Why Arbitral Ideas Migrate

Abstract

In olden times, ideas were often spread by individual pilgrims travelling on foot or by mule across vast inhospitable distances. In recent times, the spread of ideas, good and bad, has become paradoxically both easier and more difficult for international arbitration. This article examines the spread of a bad idea migrating from London to India and Pakistan (on the exercise of extra-territorial jurisdiction over foreign awards), culminating in the recent decision of the Indian Supreme Court in Bahrat Aluminium (2012); and of a good idea migrating from Moscow eventually to London (on the broad principle of the separability of an arbitration clause), culminating in Section 7 of the English Arbitration Act 1996.