Judgment

The Hon. Mr Justice Tomlinson :

1. This is an application by the Defendant to set aside an Order made ex parte by Colman J on 23 May 2006 whereby the Claimant was permitted to enforce in the same manner as a judgment an arbitration award rendered as long ago as 31 May 2000 by the International Commercial Arbitration Court of Moscow in a dispute between Monégasque de Réassurances S.A.M. and the Defendant. Judgment was entered for US$88,256,704.49 together with a further amount in respect of the costs of the arbitration. The award being a New York Convention award, Russia like the UK being a party to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958, this was an order made pursuant to section 101 of the Arbitration Act 1996 which provides:

“101(1) A New York Convention award shall be recognised as binding on the persons as between whom it was made, and may accordingly be relied on by those persons by way of defence, set-off or otherwise in any legal proceedings in England and Wales or Northern Ireland.

(2) A New York Convention award may, by leave of the court, be enforced in the same manner as a judgment or order of the court to the same effect.

…

(3) Where leave is so given, judgment may be entered in terms of the award.”