London

Abstract This chapter summarizes the key aspects of the English legal system with respect to the role of courts in arbitrations seated in England and Wales. First, it highlights the key provisions of relevant English legislation, mainly of the English Arbitration Act of 1996 and the principal court decisions arising under that legislation. Second, it describes the manner in which English law as the law of the seat affects the role of English courts in the course of three discrete stages: before the award, after the award, and during recognition and enforcement. In the process and where necessary, it addresses and ultimately rejects recently articulated concerns questioning the supremacy of England and Wales as an arbitration seat. The chapter concludes that England and Wales possesses a comprehensive and clearly articulated legal framework governing arbitration, and a sophisticated, impartial judiciary with ample experience in complex arbitral disputes and the collateral issues they raise under both English law and foreign laws and regulations. The jurisdiction is distinctly arbitration-friendly, with a keen understanding of the benefits arbitration aims to confer on parties, and the policy considerations such benefits entail.