Justin Williams, Ryan Whelan Quoted by CDR on King’s Announcement of Arbitration Bill

Akin head of international arbitration Justin Williams and senior counsel Ryan Whelan were quoted by Commercial Dispute Resolution for its article “King announced new Arbitration Bill.” The article reported on the ongoing consultations to amend the 1996 UK Arbitration Act, following the Law Commission’s publication of its final recommendations on September 6 this year. On November 7, as part of his inaugural State Opening of Parliament address, the King announced that a new Arbitration Bill will be set before Parliament in the coming session.

Ryan perceived no difficulties with the bill’s passage to the Statute books, describing the recommendations as considered, measured and pragmatic: “While there are some who believe the Law Commission should have gone further and recommended changes on issues such as the use of technology, third party funding, confidentiality, and the threshold for court intervention, the consensus – and view of our firm – is that the government is moving to implement a Law Commission report which has struck an appropriate balance between recommending reforms that will meaningfully assist in securing the attractiveness of England and Wales as a leading destination for commercial arbitration, and resisting the urge to tinker too much with an Act that is generally considered to be working rather well.”

Justin considered that the key recommendations likely to be of most interest to users of international arbitration involve moves to improve the cost and time efficiency of English arbitration, adding, “The Act [brings] into line a number of institutional rules, and reflects London’s concern to meet users’ demands.”

Akin’s global disputes & investigations team recently published an alert that followed the Law Commission’s publication of its long-awaited final report of its review of the UK Arbitration Act 1996 and the draft bill setting out the recommended amendments to the Act.