Arbitration
CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd and others v Republic of India [2026] EWCA Civ 797
The Court of Appeal, Civil Division dismissed the appellants’ appeal against the decision that the respondent, the Republic of India, had not submitted to the adjudicative jurisdiction of the English courts by ratifying the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The appellants sought to enforce two arbitral awards by a tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration against India pursuant to a bilateral investment treaty between Mauritius and India. India claimed sovereign immunity under section 1 of the State Immunity Act 1978. The central issue was whether Article III of the New York Convention, which provides that ‘Each Contracting State shall recognize arbitral awards as binding and enforce them in accordance with the rules of procedure of the territory where the award is relied upon’, constituted a waiver of sovereign immunity and submission to jurisdiction within s 2(2) of the State Immunity Act 1978. The court held that the phrase ‘rules of procedure’ in Article III encompasses state immunity, which is recognised
