On 12 February 2025, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment ([2025] EWCA Civ 108) in the long-running enforcement proceedings brought by the former shareholders of Yukos (“the Claimants”) against the Russian Federation in respect of three 2014 arbitral awards worth more than US$50 billion plus interest.
The Hague Court of Appeal and the Dutch Supreme Court (The Hague being the seat of the arbitrations) determined that the Russian Federation had agreed in writing to submit the relevant dispute to arbitration – the very point which also underpinned the Russian Federation’s assertion of State immunity before the English Court.
Mrs Justice Cockerill had held ([2023] EWHC 2704 (Comm)) that the Dutch judgments gave rise to an issue estoppel precluding the Russian Federation from re-litigating that issue before the English Courts – with the result that its assertion of State immunity fell to be dismissed.
The Court of Appeal agreed. It accepted that, although the State Immunity Act sets out comprehensively the exceptions to State immunity, it does not prescribe how the court should decide whether any of the exceptions apply in any given case. That question must be decided applying the ordinary principles of English law, including issue estoppel.
A hearing to deal with certain preliminary issues arising out of the Russian Federation’s substantive defences to enforcement has been listed for January 2026.
David Peters KC and Naomi Hart (led by Jonathan Crow CVO, KC of 4 Stone Buildings) appeared for the Claimants, instructed by Ros Prince, Philipp Mueller, Tom Spackman and Leila Perry of Stephenson Harwood LLP.
