New Arbitration Act that is set to come into force in England and Wales
Soon the highly anticipation Arbitration Act 2025 is set to come into force in England and Wales. Replacing the former Arbitration Act 1996. The amended an modernised new Act is the result of careful review by the Law Commission. Oliver Goossens (Gard) has carefully reviewed the new Act and shared his thoughts from the perspective of a P&I Club. Creating interesting insights about the impact of these developments on international arbitration.
“Impartiality – arbitrator’s duty of disclosure
The Act does not introduce a new standard requiring an arbitrator’s independence, but it does require arbitrators to disclose any circumstances which may bring into doubt their impartiality. The duty is owed to the party appointing the arbitrator and the parties to the arbitration proceedings. This reflects a similar rule applicable in the International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration rules and codifies the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Halliburton v Chubb.
Interestingly, this addition was opposed by FOSFA, GAFTA and the LMAA, who pointed to small pools of arbitrators and appointing solicitors which made repeat appointments common. Whilst Halliburton v Chubb did acknowledge that the maritime industry does have an established custom and practice that overlapping appointments do not need to be disclosed, arbitrators will now be under a continuing duty to disclose any circumstances which may raise doubts over their impartiality. This includes both information which the arbitrator knows and ought to know, meaning that arbitrators will have to carry out some investigations regarding potential issues of impartiality.”
The conclusion that under the Arbitration Act 2025 arbitrators now have an obligation to proactively investigate and disclose potential issues that may raise doubts about impartiality opens the door for interesting discussions in regard to international arbitration procedures.
Read the full article at the Gard website to learn Goossens’ perspectives on the new Act regard to summary judgment, procedures for jurisdictional challenges, governing law, and topics that haven’t changed.
