Property developers, construction contractors and others
involved in the construction industry are frequent users of
arbitration. The only limits to the nature and complexity of
commercial disputes that can be referred to arbitration are the
limits set by the arbitration agreement from which arbitrators
(with help from both statute and judge-made law) derive their
powers.
Arbitrators' powers are defined broadly in both
statutes and contracts
In fact, as the WA Supreme Court's Kenneth Martin J.
recently reminded us, commercial arbitration statutes and most
commonly used arbitration agreements tend to expand an
arbitrator's powers to deal with disputes that have been
properly referred to them. This is generally done by:
