Commercial common sense prevails: English Court upholds arbitration clause and rejects mediation as condition precedent

The Circuit Commercial Court (Birmingham) has granted a declaration that all disputes under two joint venture agreements shall be referred to arbitration. Faced with a poorly drafted multi-tiered dispute resolution clause, the court applied commercial common sense to hold that arbitration was compulsory and that the mediation provision was too uncertain to operate as a condition precedent: Toziwepi Ropa v Kharis Solutions Limited [2026] EWHC 259 (Comm). 

The court accepted that the dispute resolution clause contained a positive obligation to mediate before arbitrating, but ultimately held the provision was insufficiently certain to be enforced as a condition precedent. 

For further details, see this post on our Arbitration Notes blog.