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Australian domestic arbitral legislation: September 2011
Practical Law UK Legal Update 0-508-9412 (Approx. 3 pages)
Australian domestic arbitral legislation: September 2011
by Practical Law
| Published on 06 Oct 2011 • Australia |
Andrew Robertson (Partner), Piper Alderman
Australian domestic arbitration legislation is continuing to advance through a number of States and Territories, with the purpose of modernising and reforming domestic arbitration legislation, by adopting legislation based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. The result will be broadly to align domestic and international legislation.
The current status in the process of amending Australian domestic arbitration legislation is:
- The Commercial Arbitration Bill is still before the Victorian Parliament and has not yet progressed since being introduced in August 2011.
- The Commercial Arbitration Bill passed the lower house in Western Australia during September 2011.
- The legislation received Royal Assent in South Australia (September 2011) and in the Northern Territory (August 2011), but like Tasmania, where the Act has also received Royal Assent, no commencement date has yet been set.
- The new Commercial Arbitration Act has been operating in New South Wales since October 2010.
This means that most States and Territories have now passed, or are in the course of passing, the new legislation.
Only Queensland (which is unicameral) and the Australian Capital Territory are yet to introduce the Bill into their respective Parliaments.
Once passed in all the States and Territories, the Commercial Arbitration Act will ensure that Australia has a relatively consistent domestic and international arbitration legislation based on the UNCITRAL Model Law.
For the background to this reform, see Legal updates, Australia to get new domestic arbitration legislation and Australian domestic arbitration law reform.