IFLA Arbitration Works! S v S [2014] EWHC 7 (Fam)

On 14 January 2014 the President handed down a judgment which provides the strongest support for the use of arbitration in family and other relationship breakdown disputes.

He had before him an application for financial remedy orders lodged with the consent of divorcing spouses who had agreed between themselves to be bound (in accordance with the IFLA Scheme and the terms of the arbitration agreement which they had signed) by the arbitrator's award. He approved the order without comment but took the opportunity to deliver a number of statements of principle in relation to such arbitrations and the appropriate court response to them.

Of particular note is the President's endorsement of the IFLA Scheme as effectively well fit for purpose. Also of general interest are the ringing terms in which he has stressed how arbitral awards enjoy as one species of agreement whereby the parties consent to bind themselves a special status having regard to the conjoined concepts of party autonomy and their...

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