English Arbitration Act Update

In the September 2023 edition of the Bulletin, we
wrote about reforms to the English Arbitration Act identified by the Law Commission’s 2022-2023 Review, and which became the subject of the Arbitration Bill put before Parliament by the previous UK government in 2023¹.

The passage of the Arbitration Bill through Parliament was ended by the change in the UK government over the summer, but was re-introduced to Parliament by the new government in July; a clear indication of the desire to reform arbitration in England and Wales and recognition of the value arbitration brings to the UK economy².

The re-introduced Arbitration Bill is reflective of the earlier Bill in most aspects, but has made clear that whilst the law of the seat of the arbitration will apply to arbitration agreements that do not expressly reference the applicable law, it will not apply to a specific category of agreements, for example investment treaty arbitration agreements and similar, which are better governed by international law or foreign domestic law.

It is hoped that the Bill will be passed and that a new English Arbitration Act will come into place if not in 2024, then early in 2025. We will continue to monitor the progress of the Bill and provide further updates when required. 

For more information on global developments in arbitration, our Arbitration Quarterly publication is available here.

Footnotes

1. More detail of the reforms in the Bill are available here: International Arbitration Quarterly | Edition Q2/2024 – HFW
2. The Bill’s Explanatory Memo notes that there “are at least 5,000 domestic and international arbitrations each year in England and Wales, worth £2.5 billion to the British economy in arbitration and legal fees alone.”