Jurisdiction: determining the parties to an arbitration clause

The decision of Burton J in Egiazaryan and Another v OJSC OEK Finance [2015] EWHC 3532 (Comm) makes an important point on the question of determining whether a person is a party to an arbitration clause and can be joined to the arbitration. The court ruled that the issue is to be determined not by the law applicable to the arbitration clause but rather by the law of the domicile of the signatory of the arbitration clause.

Thus, on the facts of the case it was held that the jurisdiction of the arbitrators over the parent company of the Russian subsidiary that had signed the arbitration agreement rested not upon English law but rather upon the law of Russia.