A. LEGISLATION, TRENDS AND TENDENCIES
International arbitration in England and Wales4 continues to be
governed by the Arbitration Act 1996 (the “Arbitration Act”), to
which no legislative amendment was made in 2013.5

B. CASES
B.1. Severability Where Parties Did Not Agree to the Main
Contract
The English High Court recently set aside a maritime arbitration
award concerning an alleged charter contract on the basis that no
arbitration agreement was reached between the parties.6 The
High Court found that on the facts there been no consensus
between the parties as to the purported contract. There was no
evidence that the parties intended the arbitration agreement to
have effect independently of the proposed charter. The case
confirms the limits of the doctrine of severability of the
arbitration agreement from the contract in which it is contained:
where the reason for the invalidity of the main agreement is the
same as that for the arbitration clause, the issue of whether there
is an agreement may affect both parts of the contract.