Ravi Aswani & Valya Georgieva consider a quarter-century of the Arbitration Act 1996: where might it go from here?
- The current arbitration landscape in England and Wales.
- The Law Commission review of the Arbitration Act 1996 and areas for possible reforms.
- Updates to the Commercial Court Guide aimed at deterring unmeritorious challenges to arbitral awards.
2022 marks 25 years since the commencement of the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996) on 31 January 1997. The consensus is that this has been a very successful piece of legislation, consolidating key aspects of the then more fragmented legislation and case law governing arbitration in England and Wales, drawing inspiration from the UNCITRAL Model Law for certain provisions, and taking into account a range of other factors and interests in respect of other provisions.
The pace of legislative reform in a jurisdiction like England and Wales is relatively slow. After several years of rumours, the Law Commission on 30 November 2021 confirmed that it would indeed conduct a review of AA 1996 with a view to ‘enhance
