The Cour de cassation denied the appeal filed by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu against the decision by which the Paris Court of Appeal had denied exequatur of an interim award rendered in their dispute with Malaysia (France 64). The dispute concerned an 1878 Agreement granting exploitation rights to natural resources in North Borneo. The Court agreed both (i) with the reasoning of the lower court that the existence and validity of an international arbitration agreement are determined by the common intention of the parties, and shall be assessed, without reference to the law of any State, in accordance with the principles of good faith and effectiveness, and (ii) with the court’s conclusion that the arbitration agreement at issue had become null and void. The original parties to the 1878 Agreement had agreed on arbitration before, and only before, the then Consul General of the British Crown in Borneo; when that person was no longer the Consul General, and that role eventually disappeared, the arbitration agreement became null and void.