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UNITED STATES 1083
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 27 January 2025
(Baker Hugues Saudi Arabia Company Limited v. Dynamic Industries, Incorporated, et al.)
UNITED STATES 1083
The district court had refused to compel arbitration of a dispute, finding that the parties’ contract provided for arbitration at Dubai’s DIFC-LCIA, which had been abolished in 2021. The Court of Appeals reversed. It noted that the DIFC-LCIA had been replaced by a functionally identical successor, the DIAC, but concluded that it need not decide whether the agreed forum remained available, because the forum-selection clause designating the DIFC-LCIA was not integral to the contract of the parties, whose dominant purpose was to arbitrate generally.
The court discusses the meaning and effect of the referral of the resolution of disputes to arbitration, including: who can ask for referral and when, whether a party has waived its right to request arbitration, the defense that there was no contract at all; whether there was a condition precedent to the commencement of arbitration (e.g. mediation), stay of proceedings v. compelling arbitration, and national procedural specificities such as remand and removal (US), effect of class action. etc.
The court discusses how to interpret the Convention’s requirement that the agreement is not null and void etc., as well as specific cases of invalidity: e.g., lack of consent (misrepresentation, duress, or fraud), vague wording of the arbitral clause; other terms of the contract contradict the intention to arbitrate, etc.