Arbitration Bill [HL]

Lord Hoffmann Excerpts

Second reading committee
Tuesday 19th December 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Hoffmann (CB)]

My Lords, I will make a declaration. Since I retired from being a member of your Lordships’ Appellate Committee some 14 years ago, I have practised as an arbitrator in London, including having presided over the Nigerian arbitration to which my noble and learned friends on my right referred.

I have come only to make a modest suggestion for improvement, which has already been anticipated by my noble and learned friend Lord Hope, in relation to new Section 6A(2). I can see entirely why it has been inserted into the draft; it has been done in case some literal-minded judge, not really knowing much about the background to this legislation, might say, “It says that the law which the parties expressly agree applies to the arbitration. The parties have expressly agreed that the document in question shall be governed by the law of Patagonia, so why doesn’t that include the arbitration agreement, which is part of that document?” As I say, you have to be fairly literal and ignorant to be able to come to such a conclusion, but there it is—that is what it is for.

However, I am afraid that, as I think my noble and learned friend Lord Hope pointed out, the existing new Section 6A(2), which is meant to deal with that problem, has problems of its own because of the words,

“does not, of itself, constitute express agreement”.

If you say that, you can say, “What else is needed, and what else will count as sufficient?” You find that all you can do is to go back and say, “Well, you need an express agreement that the arbitration agreement shall be governed by a different law”. I do not want to say anything which might possibly derail the special procedure under which the Bill is going through the House but, if it were possible quietly to drop new Section 6A(2), that would be an improvement.

The Minister said that we are now aligning our law with the law of Scotland, but the law of Scotland does not have such a provision—it manages perfectly well with Section 1. Likewise, if you sign up to the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration, you get the law of Scotland, not this extra new Section 6A(2). The draftsmen of both those instruments had sufficient confidence in the judiciary to be able to arrive at the proper conclusion, simply on the basis of what is now Section 1. That is the only contribution which I have to make to your Lordships’ debate.