Following a lengthy and significant review of the existing regime, the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) has published the much-anticipated final version of its rules of arbitration (the rules).

Numerous amendments have been made, many of which are relatively minor and simply serve to clarify the drafting of existing provisions or bring them up-to-date to reflect developments in arbitral practice since the rules were last updated in 1998. However, there are also significant changes including an obligation on legal representatives to abide by ethical guidelines; the first time that such a provision has been included in any arbitration rules. In practice, the changes are likely to reduce the scope for reluctant parties to disrupt or delay the arbitral process.

The rules will come into force on 1 October 2014 and, unless agreed otherwise, will automatically apply to arbitrations started on or after that date.

The rules are the first set of arbitration rules to introduce ethical guidelines for parties' legal representatives, and parties are required to ensure that their representatives agree to comply with them (article 18.5). The guidelines are set out in a new annex and are intended to promote good and equal conduct of the parties' legal representatives (see box "Ethical guidelines").

Their apparent purpose is to ensure that all parties are represented by counsel who are subject to common ethical obligations, thereby minimising the difficulties that can arise where counsel from different jurisdictions are subject to (sometimes widely) varying professional conduct obligations.

If a party's legal representative violates the guidelines, the other party (or the tribunal on its own initiative) may make a complaint. If the tribunal upholds a complaint, it can sanction the offending legal representative by either: issuing a written reprimand; issuing a written caution as to future conduct in the arbitration; or taking any other measure necessary to fulfil the tribunal's general duties under articles 14.4(i) and (ii) (that is, to act fairly and impartially between the parties and adopt procedures to avoid unnecessary delay and expense).

A number of the revisions are aimed at speeding up and streamlining arbitral proceedings, or encouraging the parties and the tribunal to conduct proceedings as efficiently as possible (see Briefing "International arbitration: reducing costs and promoting efficiency", this issue).

The 30-day default deadlines for the response and subsequent substantive statements of case have been reduced to 28 days (articles 2 and 15). Despite being a small change, on a practical level this should mean that deadlines will rarely now fall on non-business days.

The rules now specify that the deadline for the response runs from the commencement date of the arbitration (that is, the date when the registrar receives the request), not the date of service on the respondent (article 2.1). This simple additional clarity should avoid arguments about when service was effected.

Other changes that will improve the practical conduct of proceedings include, among others:

The rules seek to address some of the common issues that can arise in disputes involving multiple parties.

Under the old rules, a respondent could only start a counterclaim against the claimant, meaning that a claim against a co-respondent (for example, for a contribution) would have to be made in separate arbitration proceedings, which it may or may not have been possible to consolidate with the main claim. The rules now provide that a respondent can bring a cross-claim against the claimant as well as against any other respondent in the arbitration (article 2.1(iii)).

The rules also contain provisions enabling the consolidation of two or more arbitrations into a single arbitration. Consolidation may be ordered by the tribunal where:

In addition, the LCIA court has the power to consolidate separate arbitrations started between the same disputing parties under the same arbitration agreement before the appointment of any tribunal(s) (article 22.6).

Following the recent precedent set by arbitral institutions such as the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the rules now introduce provisions for the appointment of an emergency arbitrator.

In the case of emergency at any time before the tribunal is formed, any party may apply to the LCIA for the immediate appointment of a temporary sole arbitrator to conduct emergency proceedings pending the formation of the tribunal (article 9.4). If the application is granted, the LCIA will appoint an emergency arbitrator within three days of receipt of the application (article 9.6).

The emergency arbitrator will decide the claim for emergency relief no later than 14 days after the appointment (article 9.8). Any such award may then be confirmed, varied, discharged or revoked, in whole or in part, by order or award made by the subsequently constituted tribunal (article 9.11).

However, the emergency arbitrator provisions will not apply if:

Also, article 9.12 makes clear that the emergency arbitrator provisions do not serve to exclude a party's right to apply to a court for any interim or conservatory measure before the tribunal is formed, and are not an alternative or substitute for such a right.