Arbitration

It was settled law that: (i) the court referred to in s 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 was the High Court; (ii) accordingly, only the High Court could give or refuse permission to appeal an arbitrary award pursuant to s 69(2)(b) of the Act; (iii) similarly only a High Court judge could grant permission to appeal under s 69(6) of the Act the High Court judge’s decision under s 69(2)(b) of the Act; (iv) notwithstanding the apparent finality of the High Court’s refusal of permission to appeal from the arbitrary award under s 69(2)(b) of the Act, where the High Court had refused permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal, pursuant to s 69(6), the Court of Appeal retained a residual jurisdiction to set aside the refusal of permission under s 69(2)(b) in certain situations of unfair or improper process; (v) those situations were: (a) where the High Court judge had never reached something that could properly be called a decision at all; and (b) where the decision was reached through