Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Commercial Court clarifies section 45 AA 1996: English law governs consent and representation; procedural orders not binding; applications need not be prospective in English‑seated UNCITRAL investor‑state arbitration

Published on: 10 March 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Arbitration expert

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Article summary

What are the practical implications of the case?

In The Republic of India v CC Devas (Mauritius) Ltd and others, the Commercial Court ruled on an application by the Republic of India under AA 1996, s 45. For practitioners, the significance lies in its examination (within an s 45 application) of how far a court may intervene in an ongoing investor-state arbitration. Against a backdrop the judgment called ‘complex and highly contentious’, the Commercial Court addressed whether it was constrained by the Tribunal’s procedural orders when determining who may consent to bringing an application under AA 1996, s 45. The Court held it was not constrained by those orders because, unlike the Tribunal—which had approached the question by reference to international law and the 1976 UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules as the arbitration’s substantive law—the English court was required to apply English law and English public policy to matters of procedure: procedural issues are governed by the law of the seat, ie, English law. Consequently, a court’s consideration of procedural questions is anchored in the seat’s law—English law—and its public policy, rather than in the Tribunal’s procedural rulings or the international law and 1976 UNCITRAL Rules identified as the arbitration’s substantive law...

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