Siemens argued that, because the Act had expressly excluded contracts such as the one between themselves and Nordot (because, so they said, the work did not fall within s105 of the Act), it was not open to the parties to confer ad hoc jurisdiction on the Adjudicator.

The Judge rejected this. He could see no reason why the parties could not agree to abide by the decision of a third party if they so wished. There was no public policy against giving effect to that agreement. The mere fact that the system of adjudication is established by statute did not make any difference.

The Judge also emphasised the need for a clear jurisdictional objection to be lodged by the party who did not wish to enter into such an agreement. Whether this was apparent would depend on a fair reading and interpretation of the correspondence between the parties. In the present case, the parties had in fact agreed to confer ad hoc jurisdiction on the Adjudicator as Siemens’ letter to the Adjudicator had stated that “[w]e will, however, abide by your decision in this matter and will comply with whatever direction you deem appropriate.”