Law digests: 4 October 2024

Contract

Unicredit Bank GmbH v ­Ruschemalliance Llc [2024] UKSC 30, [2024] All ER (D) 34 (Sep)

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the appellant Russian company (RCA) against the decision of the Court of Appeal, Civil Division, which granted an injunction requiring RCA to discontinue Russian proceedings on the reasoning that the English court had jurisdiction over the respondent German bank’s (UniCredit’s) claim. The parties had entered engineering procurement and construction contracts for the construction of facilities in Russia which were secured by on demand bonds issued by UniCredit which were governed by English law but provided for International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration in Paris. The contracts had been terminated due to the contractor’s non-performance of its obligation. The court held, first, applying the principles in Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v OOO Insurance Company Chubb [2021] 2 All 2021] 2 All ER 1 (Enka), that there was nothing in the wording of the bonds which excepted cl 12 (the arbitration clause) from the choice of English law as the governing law. The exception to those principles