Arbitration: Out With The Old In With The New Icc Rules

Overview

On 1 January 2012, following a three-year review exercise, a new version of the Arbitration and ADR Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (the "2012 ICC RULES") came into force (available here). Unless parties expressly provided for the 1998 ICC Rules in their agreement, the 2012 ICC Rules will apply to any ICC arbitration commenced after 1 January 2012, regardless of the fact that parties could not contemplate them at the time they agreed to ICC arbitration.

Many of the changes are cosmetic or just amount to a codification of current practice of the ICC Court of Arbitration and Secretariat since 1998. Others are more innovative and bring in new procedural mechanisms and principles including case management techniques focused on time and costs. The changes are meant to improve the efficiency of the ICC arbitral procedure and adapt it to the contemporary and foreseeable needs of international arbitration users.