UK P&I Club NV and Anor v Republica Bolivariana De Venezuela 2023 EWCA Civ 1497 - 20 December 2023
Country
Year
2023
Summary
Against that background, the essential question in this case is whether the judge was right to refuse to grant the Clubs a permanent anti-suit injunction restraining Venezuela (a sovereign state) from pursuing proceedings against them in Venezuela and Dutch Curaçao. His main ground for refusing the injunction was that article 6(1) was satisfied because section 13(2)(a) lay "within the range of possible rules consistent with current international standards".
In this context, it is perhaps important to understand at the outset what the judge decided. The judge dealt with Venezuela's defence of state immunity after he had considered the evidence and the nature of the proceedings brought by Venezuela in Venezuela and Dutch Curaçao. He decided first that Venezuela did not have immunity from the English Court's adjudicative jurisdiction under section 1 of the SIA, because the commercial exception in section 3(1)(a) of the SIA applied. Moreover, Venezuela was to be treated as having agreed in writing to submit the relevant disputes to arbitration in London within the meaning of section 9 of the SIA.