14/02/2023
The separability principle, as set out at section 7 of the Arbitration Act 1996, essentially provides that an arbitration agreement is, or must be treated as, a contract which is separate from the main contract of which it forms part. In DHL Project & Chartering Ltd v Gemini Ocean Shipping Ltd (the “Newcastle Express”) [2022] EWCA Civ 1555 the Court of Appeal considered the application of the separability principle in determining whether there was a binding arbitration agreement where the proposed charterparty recap expressly contained a subject and that subject had not been ‘lifted’.