‘Sleep­ing beauty ar­bit­ra­tions’: Dis­missal for want of pro­sec­u­tion under sec­tion 41(3) of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Act 1996

De­vel­op­ment sum­mary

Richard Sarll con­siders when an ar­bit­ral tribunal may dis­miss pro­ceed­ings be­cause a claimant or coun­ter­claimant has unduly delayed pur­su­ing them under sec­tion 41(3) of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Act 1996. Such ap­plic­a­tions typ­ic­ally follow a lengthy hiatus, when the claimant seeks to revive the claim—hence ‘sleep­ing beauty ar­bit­ra­tions’.

Sarll ex­am­ines the dis­missal cri­ter­ia in detail. In­or­din­ate and in­ex­cus­able delay must be ac­com­pan­ied either by a sub­stan­tial risk that the issues cannot be re­solved fairly or by ser­i­ous pre­ju­dice; the cri­ter­ia also cover cir­cum­stances in which that risk or pre­ju­dice is likely to arise.