NLJ this week: Too much, too little, or are the arbitration reform proposals just right?

In this week’s NLJ, Chris Ward, knowledge lawyer, and Clare Arthurs, partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper, assess the proposals for reform in turn and deliver their verdict on each.

Ward and Arthurs cover the doctrine of separability, arbitrator disclosure, summary disposal, exercise of court powers against third parties, and more. On jurisdiction challenges, they write that the draft bill proposes that, in the absence of an express choice, the law applicable to the arbitration agreement will be the law of the seat. As a pro-arbitration venue ascribing to the principle of separability, the UK would be, more than ever, a one-stop shop for commercial adjudication.’

Throughout their assessment, they keep in mind the maxim, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.