Insights

Arbitrators in deep water? Supreme Court hands down key judgment on impartiality of arbitrators The prospect of removing an arbitrator due to doubts over his or her impartiality will always present a challenge. The particular difficulties surrounding this issue have been under the spotlight since the long-running Halliburton v Chubb dispute reached the Supreme Court in November, 2019. On 27th November, 2020, the eagerly awaited decision of the Supreme Court was handed down.

As 2020 draws to an end, it has been a year characterised by interruptions to supply chains, humanitarian crises and increased layers of complexity in international trade due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the issues the industry has had to grapple with this year is the emergence of increasingly restrictive quarantine requirements. Although thrown into sharp relief in the context of crew changes, one of the related lower profile consequences has been an increase in the risk of hull fouling due to the resulting increase in delays in port or the use of ships as floating storage.

The Club has learned that a number of ships loaded with Australian coal are experiencing significant delays in receiving authorisation to discharge in Chinese ports. It has been suggested that the discharge of Australian cargoes is being restricted in China, but no official policy has been published, at the time of writing.   

LMAA discourages disorganised bundles and lengthy witness statements. The Chairman of the LMAA has issued informal guidance in relation to some aspects of arbitration proceedings.

The Supreme Court has handed down an eagerly-awaited judgment setting out the approach to be taken in ascertaining the law governing arbitration agreements, providing clarity to the question of which system of law should govern the validity and scope of an arbitration agreement in circumstances where the governing law of the contract is different from the law of the nominated seat of arbitration (Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi A.S. v OOO Insurance Company Chubb [2020] UKSC 38).