This is the first book to present a comprehensive picture of international commercial arbitration (ICA) and investor-state arbitration (ISA) from an Australian perspective. Australian experts in international arbitration have played important roles in transforming ICA world-wide since the 1950s into the preferred means of resolving commercial disputes, and some are now helping to lead the way in the burgeoning new field of ISA.


The Australian government has re-emphasised the significance of a vibrant ICA culture by enacting major amendments in July 2010 to the International Arbitration Act (Cth), adopting most of the 2006 revisions to the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration as well many other novel provisions. This federal legislation also provides the core for new uniform Commercial Arbitration Acts nation-wide, which apply to domestic arbitrations unless parties agree to conduct them under the International Arbitration Act. Australia's newly harmonised regime aims to align itself more closely with other major arbitral venues, including several now in Asia, and to generate more ICA activity by promoting cost-effective and timely dispute resolution involving considerable deference to party autonomy. The government is also actively concluding bilateral and regional treaties including ISA provisions to protect private investors against excessive host state interference.


This volume brings together leading Australian practitioners and professors to cover all these developments in historical, comparative and practical perspectives. It introduces the legislative history and key features of the 2010 amendments, including perspectives on issues left unresolved by the amendments, as well as the wider statutory and treaty framework. Other chapters analyse the major sets of Arbitration Rules governing arbitrations involving Australian interests, especially those from ACICA (including its Expedited Rules), UNCITRAL (including its new 2010 Rules) and the ICC.