Introduction

On 9 October 2020 the UK Supreme Court handed down its much anticipated judgment in Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS (Respondent) v OOO Insurance Company Chubb (Appellant) (hereinafter Enka v Chubb). The court upheld (for different reasons) the decision of the Court of Appeal earlier this year restraining Chubb Russia from continuing court proceedings in Russia and dismissed Chubb’s appeal by majority. The judgment was given by Lord Hamblen and Lord Leggatt, with whom Lord Kerr agreed. Lords Burrows and Sales gave their own dissenting opinions. The central issue to be determined on appeal concerned which system of law governs the validity and scope of the arbitration agreement when the law applicable to the contract differs from the law of the seat of the arbitration.

Footnotes omitted from this introduction.