2. September 2019

Arbitration Newsletter Switzerland: West Bank Casino Revisited

In the rare occasion an international arbitral award rendered in Switzerland is annulled by the Supreme Court we deem it generally noteworthy to report thereon. If such an award is then quashed once again one would imagine that such a decision of the Supreme Court is of particular relevance. It is not – at least not in the case we comment on now.

The first award was vacated by the Supreme Court on 16 June 2017 (BGE 4A_532/2016) due to a violation of the right to be heard. We commented this decision in our newsletter on 26 June 2017 (“The West Bank Casino and the Expensive Fight for the Right to be heard”, see our website). The arbitral tribunal rendered its second award – which was then once more annulled by the Supreme Court, again for a violation of the right to be heard. Apparently, the Arbitral Tribunal did not properly follow the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in its first decision. But the pertaining reasoning of the Supreme Court is to be found on one page only and does therefore not provide much food for thoughts. Nevertheless, this decision is helpful because it plants the side rails for an arbitral tribunal shouldered with the burden to review its case a second time.