Country Report on Australia for: International Commercial Arbitration – An Asia-Pacific Perspective

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed (100 page) and up-to-date introduction to international commercial and investment treaty arbitration in Australia. Some of the material will be incorporated into a chapter in the forthcoming second edition of Simon Greenberg, Christopher Kee and J. Romesh Weeramantry, International Commercial Arbitration: An Asia-Pacific Perspective (originally published by Cambridge University Press in 2011). The paper therefore focuses on the most topical issues from a comparative perspective (as identified by those three commentators), raised in each of the 10 chapters of that volume. However, this paper also provides an overview of the key provisions found in Australia’s (Model Law based) International Arbitration Act and main arbitration rules, with a particular emphasis on case law developments (including brief case notes) since statutory amendments in 2010. In addition, the paper includes a guide to other major publications related to international arbitration in Australia, especially since 2010.

Keywords: international commercial arbitration, investor-state dispute settlement, arbitration, dispute resolution, Australian law, Commonwealth law, Asian law, comparative law

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K33