Dutch Supreme Court Finds for the First Time on Corruption and Arbitration in Context of Annulment Proceedings: Case Report on the Bariven and Yukos Decisions

This article reports on the findings of the Dutch Supreme Court in its first two decisions on corruption and arbitration in the context of annulment proceedings. In the Bariven decision of 16 July 2021, the Supreme Court reinstated an arbitral award which the Court of Appeal in The Hague had annulled, citing strong indications of corruption. The Yukos decision was handed down on 5 November 2021 but did not put an end to a saga which has been playing out in the Dutch courts since 2014. The annulment proceedings are currently pending before the Amsterdam Court of Appeal which will have to find on the merits of the Russian Federation’s procedural fraud defence following cassation by the Supreme Court over a refusal to admit this defence by the Hague Court of Appeal. This article is a case report, and its aim is limited to providing non-Dutch readers with insight into the Bariven and Yukos Supreme Court decisions. The article includes an introduction on Dutch annulment proceedings, the public policy exception as applied in such proceedings, and the related but distinct action of revocation.
international arbitration, corruption, Netherlands, annulment, revocation, Bariven, Yukos