The UNCITRAL Model Law - its background, salient features and purposes

Abstract

THE most promising effort ever undertaken to harmonise national laws on arbitration has reached its decisive stage: A Working Group of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has elaborated a model law on international commercial arbitration1 which the Commission will review and finalise at its next annual session in June 1985. All governments and interested international organisations have been invited to comment on the draft text, and a wide range of further views (and tremendous interest) has been expressed already at various conferences, seminars and symposia in all continents of the world. The opportunity to present here – in the first issue of a new journal specifically geared to international arbitration – the underlying ideas and salient features of the draft model law is both a fitting task and a rewarding honour. It should also be regarded as a recognition of UNCITRAL's work in the field of international dispute settlement.2 Of its previous achievements, the most prominent one was certainly the preparation and adoption in 1976 of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules which are now well known and widely used around the world.3 Also noteworthy are the more recent UNCITRAL Conciliation Rules (1980) for independent amicable settlement efforts as a viable alternative to adversary proceedings.4 The current work on the model law, again carried out with global representation of different economic and legal systems, with considerable expertise and in consultation with other organisations,5 promises to result in another important United Nations contribution to the cause of international commercial arbitration. As an eminent rapporteur to the ICCA – Interim Meeting at Lausanne put it, ‘the new Model law, when it is completed by UNCITRAL and enacted by states, will stand along with the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules as a principal …