Making Australia a better place for arbitration - the new ACICA Rules

When parties who operate in different countries are in dispute, the question of where to hold any arbitration hearing can be complex. Until recently, one country that did not present itself as a preferred option was Australia. Distance from the rest of the world, coupled with arbitration rules that had not kept pace with technology, often ruled us out.

That changed in April 2021 when the independent, not-for-profit dispute resolution organisation, Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), released new arbitration model rules that bring Australia in line with international best practice, while also going a long way to overcoming the tyranny of distance.