JUDGMENT

Hasnah Mohammed Hashim FCJ:

[1] The appeal raised questions about the significance and the enforceability of oral pronouncements by an arbitral tribunal in bifurcated arbitration proceedings governed by the Arbitration Act 2005 (AA 2005) and KLRCA Arbitration Rules, now known as the AIAC Arbitration Rules 2021 (Rules 2021). In particular, whether an oral decision by an Arbitral Tribunal on liability being a decision on the substance of a dispute, is a valid decision within the meaning of the AA 2005. We heard oral submissions by all learned counsel representing the respective parties and at the end of those submissions we indicated that we needed time to consider the respective submissions. We have now reached our decision and what follows below are our deliberations on the issues raised and our reasons as to why we have so decided.