Arbitration - the Next Step in the United Kingdom

Abstract

There is general agreement among lawyers and arbitrators that the United Kingdom needs a new Arbitration Act. If a new Act is not placed on the statute book soon, the UK will lose important and lucrative international arbitration business to competing arbitration centres in countries with more favourable laws. The statutory framework of English arbitration law is contained in the three Arbitration Acts of 1950, 1975 and 1979. The 1950 Act is the principal act, but that of 1979 is the most important. The 1975 Act gives effect in the United Kingdom to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitration Awards of 1958, which is accepted by 71 states, including the UK, the US, the Soviet Union and China. The 1979 Act provides a temporarily satisfactory, though not ideal, solution. It adopts the principle that an award is reviewable by the court on a substantial...