The International Law Association (ILA) has issued a draft report on ascertaining the contents of the applicable law in international commercial arbitration. For background on applicable law, see Practice note, Which laws apply in international commercial arbitration? The ILA report provides a list of 15 practical recommendations that arbitrators may take into account when ascertaining the applicable law and its contents. The recommendations, offered as guidance only (much like the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest), focus on how arbitrators should acquire information on the content of the applicable law, how to interact with the parties about such content, how to make use of the information and how to address situations that require special treatment. The report proposes, amongst other things, that arbitrators should:

The draft report, available on the ILA's website, is being presented at the association's biennial conference in Rio de Janeiro on 18-21 August 2008.