This seminar will discuss appeals under section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996, the English Arbitration Act 2025 and the Arbitration Reform Project of the Law Commission. Shipping cases and reinsurance cases will be used to demonstrate the use of the appeals mechanism in arbitration and the case law jurisprudence on this issue, so as to elaborate on how the right to appeal in law is used differently in different categories of disputes and whereby the parties’ expectations are different. Where appeals may be allowed on questions of law, in reality we are witnessing an abuse as often questions of fact are cloaked as questions of law. There will also be a discussion of the changes introduced by the new Arbitration Act 2025, and of the only new change regarding appeals in arbitration, i.e., the new section 67 of the Arbitration Act 2025 and conclusions will be drawn. The position in other common law and civil law jurisdictions and in UNCITRAL Model Law jurisdictions as to the appeals mechanism in arbitration will be also presented to juxtapose the different approach and finally general overall conclusions will be drawn.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Kyriaki Noussia has research interests in arbitration law (international commercial, investment, insurance/reinsurance, maritime, environmental, energy (oil and gas), the use of technology and innovation (use of data within AI and new technologies) and made several publications in these fields. She is also a highly experienced legal practitioner with more than 25 years’ experience in shipping, insurance/insurance, oil and gas, and is interested in the 5.0 era in the legal dispute resolution, the use of AI in tribunals and the future of AI in law and in decision-making. She is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Reading having previously served at the University of Exeter and at the University of Birmingham. In the past she has held prestigious fellowships and awards such as the Exeter- Tsinghua Fellowship (2018), the Fulbright visiting scholar award (Columbia law school, 2013) the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (University of Hamburg and Max Planck Institute (2008-2010) and has been a visiting academic at universities in Australia, China, Singapore, Greece, Italy, Latin America, Turkey, USA and Thailand.

*The Law Society of Hong Kong has awarded this seminar 1 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) point.