NIGERIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Adeyinka Aderemi, Chinasa Unaegbunam, Omono Blessing Omaghomi and Ibukun Enigbokan, Streamsowers & Köhn
involving the interpretation of the constitution, ille - gal contracts and matrimonial causes. • Public Policy Reasons – In Nigeria, public policy is a ground for challenging an arbitral award. How - ever, what constitutes public policy and when an award violates public policy are not clearly defined in the AMA. In practice, Nigerian courts have been reluctant to interfere with arbitral awards on the grounds of public policy, preferring to narrowly construe this ground. However, in recent decisions of the court of appeal, arbitral awards that offend specific provisions of statutes have been set aside on the grounds of public policy. • Status of the award – a party may challenge the enforcement of an award on the ground that the award has not yet become binding on the parties or has been set aside or suspended by a court of the country in which the award was made. It is pertinent to note that the AMA allows a mechanism known as the Award Review Tribunal (ART). Under Section 56 (6) of the AMA, an ART constituted in the same way as the tribunal in the original arbi - tration can be convened and, within 60 days, can
either uphold or set aside an arbitral award. This provision is only applicable if parties expressly provide in their arbitration agreement that awards can be reviewed by an ART. It is noteworthy that enforcement proceedings must be stayed during an ART review, so any enforcement proceedings may be challenged on the ground that the award is undergoing review by the ART. • Issues of Limitation – The challenging party can also argue that enforcement of the award is barred by limitation. This means that the time for bringing an action to enforce the award has lapsed. A party may appeal to a higher court, in this case the court of appeal, against a decision recognising and enforcing an arbitral award. The appeal pro - cess is distinct from the process of recognising and enforcing the arbitral award at the High Court before which the judgment is first sought to be recognised and enforced. Where the High Court has made a final order recognising the award, the judgment debtor may thereafter appeal to the court of appeal seeking to set aside the order of the High Court.
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