The Arbitration Act 1996 (Act) was enacted to facilitate the
arbitration of commercial disputes and to enable international
arbitration so that disputes decided here can be easily enforced in
other jurisdictions. In principle, the incorporation of an
arbitration clause should lead to the successful resolution of such
disputes in a private, expeditious, and cost-effective way.
While the ability to arbitrate is most obviously premised on
arbitration being the parties' contractually agreed method of
resolution, there is currently no general guidance in the Act as to
what matters of dispute may or may not be arbitrated. Throughout
the Act's existence, many commentators have been of the view
that disagreements between parties, capable of being settled by
direct agreement, should be able to be determined by way of
arbitration. However, in the trust law area in particular, the lack
of statutory guidance has meant that lawyers have always approached
the possibility of
