Third party arbitration under English law

Arbitration agreements should be exclusively binding on the parties who enter them. However, there are situations in which third parties, such as the guarantor, successor, consignor or subsidiary company, are usually beyond the status of genuine parties to the agreement, although they cab invoke or be bound by the agreement owing to the common rights and liabilities between those parties, as they have an active role concerning the execution of the contract. These situations raise several issues concerning when the third party to an arbitration agreement would be entitled to intervene in the proceedings, and when a party to the proceedings is able to join non-parties to the arbitration proceedings. This paper examines these maters under English law, demonstrating that it fails to provide legal certainty to third parties. The paper concludes with a recommendation for appropriate regulation to adjust "third parties in arbitration" at national, regional and international levels, owing to the disparity of case judgments in this area of law.