The parties were members of the small Ismaili community, a branch of Shia Islam. When starting a business venture in 1981 they entered a joint venture agreement, prescribing, inter alia, that arbitration on any division of the venture's assets be undertaken by members of the Ismaili community. The parties parted company in 1988, since when a panel and then an individual arbitrator were unable satisfactorily to conclude the winding up of the venture. The defendant appointed an arbitrator under the agreement who was not an Ismaili Muslim. The claimant considered this appointment to be invalid and brought proceedings in the Commercial Court. The court held (i) that the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) (Amendment) Regulations 2003, SI 2003/2828, were of no application to the agreement, because an arbitrator was not an ‘employee’ of the disputants; (ii) that even if he were considered to be an employee, the insistence that he be a member of a particular religious community was a Genuine Occupational Requirement and thus exempt from the regulations; and (iii) that the restriction on appointment to members of a particular religious community did not breach the Human Rights Act 1998. The purported appointment was therefore contrary to the terms of the arbitration agreement. [WA]