Practical Law

Much ink has already been spilled on the witness evidence reforms, which came into effect in April 2021 and will have a far-reaching effect on how witness evidence is approached in litigation in the English Commercial Court. Judicial concern about the inappropriate use of witness statements in court proceedings has led to the new Practice Direction … Continue reading A new direction for witness evidence in arbitration? →

In October 2020, the ICC released the new ICC Rules 2021 in draft. The rules could still be subject to editorial changes, but, once finalised in December, will come into force on 1 January 2021. This current draft of the new rules leaves the fundamental framework introduced in 2012 largely unchanged and this is unsurprising. … Continue reading Draft ICC Rules 2021: drawing a line under some issues of debate in arbitration? →

On 11 August 2020, the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) released its new rules, which will come into force on 1 October 2020. The last update to the LCIA Rules took place in 2014. Like many of its competitor institutions, at that time, the LCIA introduced some new and innovative elements. In particular, the … Continue reading New LCIA Rules 2020: a measured “update” not a radical redraft →

Arbitration practitioners are well aware of the inherent difficulties that can arise where important evidence is required from reluctant third parties. Where the evidence in question is pivotal to a party’s case and the witness refuses to give evidence, it can be difficult for that party to make their case either comprehensively or convincingly.

On 20 December 2018, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) released a revised Note to parties and arbitral tribunals on the conduct of the arbitration under the ICC Rules of Arbitration (the note to parties). The revised text, which came into effect from 1 January 2019, adopts a new … Continue reading The transparency conundrum: will the ICC’s new pro-publication approach to arbitral awards win over the majority? (Part 2) →

On 20 December 2018, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) released a revised Note to parties and arbitral tribunals on the conduct of the arbitration under the ICC Rules of Arbitration (the note to parties). The revised text, which came into effect from 1 January 2019, adopts a new … Continue reading The transparency conundrum: will the ICC’s new pro-publication approach to arbitral awards win over the majority? (Part 1) →

Samuel Johnson famously said that change should be avoided unless there was “reason sufficient to balance the inconvenience”. The prevailing climate today is rather more innovation-minded and it is often assumed that change is for the better, perhaps not always with much analysis of the potential downside.

Any introductory lecture on international commercial arbitration will at some point address the balance that has been struck, or has sought to be struck, between the common and civil law procedural traditions. The “soft law” IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration will be referred to as an example of how this compromise … Continue reading The Prague Rules: is the happy partnership between the common law and civil law evidentiary tradition in arbitration really a fiction? →