The judgment of the Singapore Court of Appeal (“Court”) in Voltas Ltd v York International Pte Ltd [2024] SGCA 12 (“Voltas v York”) helpfully settles the question of whether or not an arbitrator is able to impliedly reserve his or her jurisdiction after rendering a final award as a matter of Singapore law. Additionally, the…

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Western Australia (“WA”) Court of Appeal confirmed that courts have the conclusive authority to determine the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunals. The Commercial Arbitration Act 2012 (WA) (the “Act”) confers competence upon arbitral tribunals to determine their own jurisdiction. However, courts retain authority to review questions of jurisdiction….

Winston Churchill said in 1942 that the war was not at the end, adding: “It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”. When it comes to international arbitration, the beginning is easy enough to discern from the notice of arbitration. Divining the end can be…

During New York Arbitration Week 2021, the New York International Arbitration Center (“NYIAC”) and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (“CIArb”) New York branch hosted two panels dedicated to the theme of “Getting It Right in International Arbitration.”  This post presents some highlights.   Getting it Right:  How Arbitrators, Counsel, and Institutions Can Improve the Quality…

On the final day of ACICA’s Australian Arbitration Week 2021, Level Twenty Seven Chambers presented a seminar on “Functus Officio in Arbitration”. The theme of the seminar was judicial intervention and functus officio, discussed by Shane Doyle QC (Barrister, Level Twenty Seven Chambers), Sarah Spottiswood (Barrister, Level Twenty Seven Chambers), and Chiann Bao (Arbitrator, Arbitration…

The Arbitration Committee of the New York City Bar Association has recently published a report titled: “The Functus Officio Problem in Modern Arbitration and a Proposed Solution” (the “Report”). In United States arbitration, the functus officio doctrine instructs that once an arbitrator finishes performance of her office, i.e., renders an award, her authority as an…

In a recent decision, New York State’s highest court (the New York Court of Appeals) rejected an argument that a tribunal exceeded its authority, as to warrant vacatur, when it reconsidered and corrected an earlier decision rendered in a “partial final award.”  The Court concluded that arbitrators are not functus officio to reconsider an interim…

One of the main benefits of arbitrating a dispute is obtaining a final binding award.  A number of principles work to promote this fundamental building block of the arbitration ecosystem. For example, the functus officio doctrine dictates that, once arbitrators have fully exercised their authority to adjudicate the issues submitted to them, their authority over those…

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the author’s law firm. There are a number of questions that influence how arbitration treats cases in which an award is challenged successfully. A court overturns an award declining jurisdiction,…