NEW ARBITRATION RULES

PUBLISHED BY THE LONDON COURT OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION (LCIA) AND INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (ICC)

- Nicholas Peacock

The changes to the LCIA Rules, and the pending changes to the ICC Rules, reflect the desire of arbitral institutions to keep their processes current and relevant to commercial parties, even as the demands on the arbitral process change

For users of international arbitration, two important recent developments have been the revised sets of institutional arbitration rules for both (1) the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) which came into force for all LCIA arbitrations commenced on or after 1 October 2020, and (2) the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) whose new 2021 Rules have received a ‘soft launch’ prior to them being finalized and brought into force on 1 January 2021.

This article considers the main changes in both sets of rules relevant to commercial users of arbitration and their counsel.

THE 2020 LCIA RULES

The 2020 LCIA Rules aim to enhance the efficiency and flexibility of the LCIA process while staying true to the LCIA’s traditional light-touch approach.