Paris Court of Appeal dismisses application to set aside arbitral award amidst corruption allegations (ESISCO v Danieli)

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: In a didactic decision of 5 December 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal (the Court) relied on well-established rules of French international arbitration law to dismiss an application to set aside an arbitral award brought on two different grounds of annulment, namely that: recognition or enforcement of the award would be contrary to (a) substantive international public policy because it would give effect to corruption and (b) procedural international public policy because the arbitral tribunal’s decision was taken on the basis of allegedly forged documents; and the arbitral tribunal had been irregularly constituted because the president of the tribunal had allegedly failed to disclose what the applicant considered an important circumstance likely to raise questions as to his independence and impartiality. Based on the factual circumstances of the case, the Court considered that the applicant failed to establish (i) the existence of serious, precise, and converging indicia of corruption and (ii) that the...