Dispatch 99, Sept 2008

The recent Privy Council case of A&A Mechanical Contractors and Company Ltd v Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad and Tobago) provides guidance on without prejudice privilege.

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.