Background
The arbitration concerns a dispute which arose between Claimants and Respondent on the legal characterization and enforcement of a lease or cession contract, depending on the interpretation of the parties, over a portion of territory along the North Coast of Borneo –known today as Sabah, Malaysia- concluded on 4 January 1878, between Sultan Mohammed Jamal-ul Alam and Messrs. Alfred Dent and Baron Gustavus de Overbeck, an Austrian Consul general from Hong Kong, so that the latter, as well as their descendants and successors, could, among other things, “take advantage of their minerals, forest products and animals”, in exchange for the payment of an annual rent in perpetuity.
