The International Arbitration Review 2017: Australia Chapter

Corrs Chambers Westgarth has contributed to the eighth edition of The International Arbitration Review (Law Business Research Ltd, 2017), an annual guide to international commercial and investment arbitration in the most significant jurisdictions worldwide and to the principal international arbitration institutions.

In the words of the editor: “International arbitration is a fast-moving express train, with new awards and court decisions of significance somewhere in the world rushing past every week. Legislatures, too, constantly tinker with or entirely revamp arbitration statutes in one jurisdiction or another…there is a niche to be filled by an analytical review of what has occurred in each of the important arbitration jurisdictions during the past year, capturing recent developments but putting them in the context of the jurisdiction's legal arbitration structure and selecting the most important matters for comment. This volume, to which leading arbitration practitioners around the world have made valuable contributions, seeks to fill that space."

In their chapter on developments in Australia, James, Colin, Timothy and Samuel consider recent developments in the Australian international commercial arbitration landscape. In particular, the chapter focuses on:

• recent amendments to the International Arbitration Act 1974, and further proposed amendments;

• analysis of judicial treatment of applications under s 7(2) of the International Arbitration Act (concerning whether there is a valid arbitration agreement); and

• the ever-growing body of case law considering the narrow scope for resisting enforcement of arbitral awards.

The chapter also examines important investor–state dispute developments concerning Australia, including the tobacco plain packaging international investment arbitration disputes brought before the World Trade Organization, as well as the latest developments in the proceedings between Timor-Leste and Australia before the Permanent Court of Arbitration.