CML Seminar Series: Appeals in Arbitration and the Effect of the English Law Commission Arbitration Law Reform Project

CML was pleased to host Dr Kyriaki Noussia, Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the University of Reading, give a seminar on the topic of ‘Appeals in Arbitration and the Effect of the English Law Commission Arbitration Law Reform Project’ on 28 March 2025. Dr Noussia has research interests in arbitration law, insurance/reinsurance law, maritime law, environmental law, oil and gas law, and AI and the law. She is also a highly experienced legal practitioner with more than 25 years of experience in shipping, insurance, reinsurance, oil and gas. She is interested in the 5.0 era in legal dispute resolution, AI, tribunals and the future of law and decision-making. Various maritime law practitioners and academics attended this CML seminar, which was held in downtown Singapore. The seminar was moderated by Professor Stephen Girvin, MPA Professor of Maritime Law and Director of CML.

In her introduction, Dr Noussia highlighted that mechanisms for appeals in arbitration vary across jurisdictions and depend on the type of dispute. She exemplified reinsurance disputes, which are traditionally resolved through arbitration or settlement. Discussing reinsurance case law, she opined that reinsurance arbitration awards are rarely, but most of the time successfully appealed and, contrary to shipping or commodities disputes, the appeal mechanisms are not abused. She explained why parties to shipping and commodities disputes view arbitration as the first step of dispute resolution and have the availability of appealing arbitration awards in their minds.

Dr Noussia presented an overview of appeals under the various English Arbitration Acts since 1950. She focused on section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 and elaborated on how this section had been abused. Moreover, she mentioned the Law Commission’s review of the Arbitration Act 1996 and reforms introduced by the Arbitration Act 2025. She explained, among other things, the reasons why section 69 remained unchanged.

Dr Noussia compared the English approach to appeals in arbitration in other jurisdictions, including Singapore and alluded to the public consultation on the International Arbitration Act 1994 (Singapore) recently announced by the Ministry of Law.

The seminar concluded with a question-and-answer session, during which participants asked about, among other things, the right of appeal in the Ministry of Law’s Consultation Paper.