A double whammy for claimants in Heirs of the Sultan of Sulu v Malaysia (with the Dutch Courts emphasising mutual trust between EU courts even outside Brussels Ia).

Update 6 July 2023 my thoughts on the funding issue are here.

The Heirs of the Sultan of Sulu v Malaysia at the end of June saw both the Paris Court of Appeal declare as inadmissible (due to late introduction) their appeal against the earlier decision suspending the exequatur, in France, of the final arbitral award (issued in Paris as locus arbitri, but under Spanish law as lex arbitrii) granting them close to 15 billion USD in a saga dating back to colonial times, and the Hague courts (also upon appeal) confirm the unenforceability of the same award in The Netherlands.

The latter judgment found that

a Madrid court judgment of 19 June 2021  annulling the appointment of the sole arbitrator has to be recognised in The Netherlands on the basis of the Dutch Supreme Court’s criteria in Gazprom; of note is the court’s confirmation of the issue not being included in CJEU Marc Rich (and see also CJEU Gazprom), however it also [6.7] emphasises that even outside the scope of Brussels Ia, there is mutual trust between the courts of Member States of the EU;

the relevant agreement at issue (confirmed in 1903) did not include an agreement to arbitrate; and

the stay (in the meantime confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal: see above) in enforcement of the award by the French courts would likely also lead to the annulment of the award.

The heirs may still consider a further appeal to the French Supreme Court and the award itself has not yet been annulled however the case is notorious in international arbitration and, it is suggested, can only have been this long running due to what is said to be inappropriate third party funding.

Geert.