The tribunal

The tribunal

Tribunal appointment—multiple parties

This Practice Notes provides guidance on how to appoint a tribunal where there are multiple parties involved in the arbitration and the appointment process, including the position on common arbitrators across multi-party and related arbitration proceedings. It covers the relevant provisions of the Arbitration Act 1996 and arbitration proceedings under the UNCITRAL Rules, the Arbitration Rules of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA Rules) and Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) (ICC Rules). See Practice Note: Tribunal appointment—multiple parties.

Ensuring the arbitral tribunal's independence

This Practice Note sets out the issues a party appointing an arbitrator should consider when trying to ensure their independence. It sets out points to consider when nominating an arbitrator and provisions in major sets of institutional rules such as those made by the ICC, the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). See Practice Note: Ensuring the arbitral tribunal's independence and impartiality.

Challenging the tribunal's independence

This Practice Note sets out why and how a party might

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French courts re-affirmed how the irreconcilability between an arbitral award and a foreign judgment may amount to a breach of international public policy (SNEL v Congo and FG Hemisphere)

Arbitration analysis: On 16 September 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal (the Court) dismissed Congolese company Société Nationale d’Électricité (SNEL)’s application to set aside an ICC award rendered against it and the Democratic Republic of Congo, confirming France’s pro-enforcement stance. The Court held that as a matter of principle, the irreconcilability between an arbitral award and a non-EU foreign judgment may amount to a breach of international public policy in circumstances where the foreign judgment has first obtained exequatur in France and the irreconcilable decisions result in mutually exclusive consequences. In the present case, because the Congolese judgment relied upon by SNEL had been denied exequatur for lack of proper notice to the opposing party, no irreconciliability could arise. The Court reaffirmed that the mere disregard of a foreign judgment’s res judicata effect by an arbitral award is not, in and of itself, contrary to international public policy. The Court further clarified that the exequatur judge exercises only limited review, verifying the existence of the arbitral award and the absence of any manifest breach of international public policy, dismissing SNEL’s other arguments based on capacity to arbitrate, arbitrability, and foreign procurement rules, which did not amount to a breach of French international public policy. Written by Julie Spinelli, partner at Le 16 Law, and Carl Szymura, associate at Le 16 Law.

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