A ROUNDUP OF RECENT ARBITRATION DECISIONS OF THE SWISS SUPREME COURT, PART II By John Magnin and Hendrik Puschmann (London) The Swiss Federal Supreme Court (the “Court”) frequently considers applications under the Private International Law Act (the “Act”) for the annulment of Swiss-seated arbitral awards or enforcement of foreign awards. The Court’s decisions are relevant beyond Switzerland; they can inform the approach of courts elsewhere. This is part two of our series of summaries of recent rulings of the Court. Part one appeared in the June 2016 edition of Arbitration World. A PARTY’S RIGHT TO BE HEARD/ RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL – CASE NO. 4A_246/2014, 15 JULY 2015 Background A dispute arose between nine football players and their club over certain conditions of their contracts. FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber (“DRC”) found broadly in the players’ favour. The club’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) was dismissed by the sole arbitrator. The club asked the Court to annul the CAS award. It was claimed that the award had not addressed some of the club’s submissions, which the club argued violated its right to be heard under s. 190(2)(d) of the Act. Moreover, the arbitrator had ruled himself unable, as a matter of Swiss law, to accept evidence that should have been produced in the 58 | K&L Gates: ARBITRATION WORLD DRC proceedings. The club asserted that the absence of full powers of review violated its right to a fair trial under art. 6(1) ECHR. The Court should therefore annul the award for public policy reasons under s. 190(2)(e) of the Act. Ruling On the right to be heard, the Court reaffirmed its restrictive reading of s. 190(2)(d), which “imposes on the arbitrators a minimal duty to examine and handle the pertinent issues” (emphasis added). A tribunal breaches this duty only if (i) it fails “to take into consideration some statements, arguments, evidence and offers of evidence submitted by one of the parties”, which (ii) are “important to the decision”. It remains to be seen what the threshold is for the second limb of the test. In the case at hand, the CAS arbitrator failed to consider submissions