English Justice for an American Company?

Abstract

This Essay addresses the Halliburton Co. v. Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd. case, which is pending before England's Supreme Court. The issue before the Court is whether it is appropriate for the "neutral" arbitrator, who has a history of serving as a party-appointed arbitrator for Chubb, to serve as the "neutral" arbitrator in the matter while simultaneously serving as a party-appointed arbitrator for Chubb in another related arbitration proceeding involving the same insurance policy form and the same underlying Deepwater Horizon incident. The lower courts declined to remove the arbitrator. The Essay also addresses the question of whether London arbitration proceedings under a Bermuda Form policy are sufficiently fair to American policyholders to justify their continued use if the lower courts' rulings in the case are not reversed.

Keywords: insurance, Bermuda, Bermuda Form, London, Arbitration, Halliburton, Chubb, Deepwater Horizon, ACE, Transocean, BP

JEL Classification: K12, K13, K23, K32, K33, K41