The Arbitration Act 1996: Time for Reform?

Abstract

In 1989 the Departmental Advisory Committee on Arbitration Law (the DAC), recommended that England should not adopt the UNCITRAL Model Law of Arbitration (Model Law) and that, instead, there should be a new and improved Arbitration Act. This article reviews the AA 1996 and the need for reform. It focuses on the main issues that have attracted judicial attention in the 21 years of its operation in England and other jurisdictions and draws conclusions from the judicial lessons learnt in other jurisdictions which have either enacted the Model Law per se or may have largely based the product of their legislative enactment on the Model Law. In the light of the above analysis, the article finally address the question of the suitability or not of the AA 1996, the question of whether the time for yet another reform has arrived and it also assesses the suitability of the Model Law.