While most of the legal industry’s focus on events in Canberra have centred around the shenanigans of the Liberal Party and the voting down of the CPRS legislation in the Senate, a less publicised legislative push is likely to have a bigger impact on the Australian legal environment – to the point of establishing another onshore practice area for law firms. At least this is the hope for lawyers working in the international arbitration space of amendments to the International Arbitration Act 1974 that were introduced into parliament last week.
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The amendments will seek to incorporate changes which the United Nations commission on International Trade Law has made to a model law that Australia adopted soon after it was created. Other amendments to the legislation would bring Australia into line with other jurisdictions around the world that are seen as favourable to host neutral dispute resolution processes.
If the amendments are passed, Australia will add a favourable legislative regime supportive of international arbitration to its attributes that will attract business for law firms. These include a judiciary which is sophisticated and supportive of international arbitration, a legal profession expert in the practice of dispute resolution and arbitration, and world class facilities in Australia which make the running of international arbitrations effective and hospitable.
According to Doug Jones, partner of Clayton Utz and president of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), Australia has the potential to join London, Paris, Geneva, Stockholm, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore as a major centre for international arbitration in the world. “We have all of the ingredients that go to make a neutral venue desirable to parties seeking to run international arbitration,” he said. “We tick all of the boxes, which not a lot of other countries in the world manage to do.”
The rise of Australia as a place to settle international disputes would be worth billions to the overall economy and would provide a windfall for the legal industry. Jones said that for lawyers it represents a whole new practice area that can be developed onshore whereas if Australian lawyers want to practice international arbitration at the moment they generally have to leave the country.
“This will enable it to occur in our jurisdiction and add significant and profitable area of practice to local practitioners,” Jones said adding that Australia would attract business from countries that trade in the region extending from the Middle East to the West Coast of Canada and the US. The bill is currently tabled and is expected to be finalised in February or March next year.
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