Hong Kong Launches Stakeholder Consultation On Arbitration Law Reform

Proposals include default rule on governing law of arbitration agreement, judicial review of negative jurisdictional rulings, and framework for arbitration of trust disputes 

A stakeholder consultation on proposed amendments to the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance has been launched following a review of the legislation by an expert working group (covered in our previous blogs here and here).

Key recommendations published by the Hong Kong Department of Justice include:

• A default rule that the law of the seat should govern the arbitration agreement, unless the parties agree otherwise;
• Judicial review of negative jurisdictional rulings by tribunals;
• Provision for tribunals to summarily dispose of issues, claims and defences found to be manifestly without merit or manifestly outside the tribunal's jurisdiction;