AFTER A long period of gestation the Arbitration Bill was introduced into the New Zealand Parliament in October 1995.1 Although it received support from business and government the Bill failed to win a position on the general list and was introduced as a private member's bill.2 Nevertheless, it has already been referred to the select committee process and substantial amendments are not anticipated.3,4 The Bill implements the recommendations of the Law Commission in its 1991 Report,5 and closely follows6 the drafting adopted by the Law Commission. The Law Commission's report, which includes a commentary on the draft Bill7 and material relating to the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration8 which formed the basis of the core of its proposals,9 will therefore be exceptionally useful in interpreting and applying the new law. The Bill states that an arbitral tribunal or a court may refer to ‘the documents relating to the Model Law … and originating from the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, or its working group for the preparation of the model law' which are appended to the report.10 The Law Commission report and discussion paper were not similarly acknowledged, but the second had already been cited by the Court of Appeal in CBI New Zealand Ltd. v. Badger Chiyoda as consistent with the overseas trend towards greater party autonomy in arbitration law and practice.11 The Bill signals the way towards a more explicitly contract-based approach to arbitration. Its first stated purpose is to encourage the use of arbitration as ‘an agreed method for resolving commercial and other disputes’.12 Any dispute will be arbitrable if the parties agree to arbitration except where this is ‘contrary to the public policy or, under any other law, such …