In Braes of Doune Wind Farm (Scotland) Ltd v Alfred McAlpine Business Services Ltd [2008] EWHC 426 (TCC), Akenhead J considered an arbitration clause which stated expressly that the seat of any arbitration was "Glasgow, Scotland", but which also selected the English Arbitration Act 1996 (which does not apply in Scotland) as the applicable procedural law. He held that, on a proper construction of the contract as a whole, the juridical seat of the arbitration was England, and that Scotland had been selected as the location of any hearing. It followed that the English court had jurisdiction to entertain an application for leave to appeal brought pursuant to the English Arbitration Act.

Although the dispute resolution provisions considered in the present case were unusual, Akenhead J's judgment is of interest because it confirms that, while a choice of seat will usually dictate a corresponding choice of procedural law, the converse is also true. His judgment also contains some interesting comments on the approach which a judge will take to the issue of whether an arbitrator's decision is "obviously" wrong for the purposes of any appeal.