In 2009, the Standing Committee of Attorney General (SCAG) agreed to develop uniform legislation across all States and Territories which would govern domestic arbitration in Australia. These discussions coincided with the amendments to the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth), which brought Australian arbitration into line with the UNCITRAL Model Law (see the International Arbitration Amendment Act 2009 (Cth), discussed in Legal update, Australia advances arbitral law reform). Similarly, the domestic arbitral legislative reforms had the effect of applying the Model Law as the governing arbitral rules throughout Australia pursuant to a number of Commercial Arbitration Acts which apply to arbitrations where all parties do business or reside in Australia. (see Legal Update, Australia to get new domestic arbitration legislation.)

Parties to domestic arbitration agreements have the option to choose the applicable jurisdiction. However, the staggered commencement of the domestic Acts (as outlined below) has complicated the choices made by parties to arbitration agreements, given that the Act that will apply will be the Act at the time of the commencement of the arbitration and not the Act in force when the arbitration agreement comes into effect.

The current status in the process of the domestic arbitral legislation reforms is:

We will continue to monitor the rolling out of the legislation and provide further updates in the future.