Jacobs UK Ltd v Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP

In Doosan Babcock v Mabe, the English TCC confirmed that it may grant urgent interim relief in support of arbitration where necessary to preserve contractual rights. The case highlights that, even with on‑demand guarantees, courts may restrain a call where a beneficiary seeks to benefit from its own contractual breach.

Failure by a party to pay its share of an advance on arbitration costs may amount to a breach of the arbitration agreement, but it will not necessarily be repudiatory. Where the applicable arbitral rules provide mechanisms to allow the arbitration to proceed, non‑payment alone is unlikely to render the arbitration agreement inoperative.