This post is concerned with the Arbitration Act 2010. The post mainly discussed what Arbitration Act 2010 is and to what the Act concerned. On June 8, 2010, the Arbitration Act 2010 came into force, repealing in their entirety the Arbitration Acts of 1954, 1980 and 1998 (except for arbitrations that had already commenced before that date). A new and vastly different Arbitration Act is now in force in Ireland. The new statute applies to both domestic and international arbitration. Its purpose is to “further and better facilitate the resolution of disputes by arbitration. Probably the most significant change to arbitration law in Ireland is that the 2010 Act gives force of law to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on International commercial Arbitration (the Model Law) in respect of both international arbitration and “other arbitration”, i.e. domestic arbitration. The Act comprises three Parts and six Schedules, one of which is the text of the Model Law as adopted by UNCITRAL on June 21, 1985, with amendments as adopted by that Commission on July 7, 2006. The three Parts are Pt 1, “Preliminary and General”; Pt 2, “Arbitration”; Pt 3, “Reference to Arbitration where proceedings pending before Court”. Whilst not intending to go through the Model Law article by article, I believe that there are a number of provisions which are of such importance that it is necessary to discuss them individually in order for the reader to fully comprehend the changes that the adoption of the Model Law into domestic arbitration law has brought about.
In the early part of 2007, professionals involved in arbitration in Ireland felt that a change in the domestic law of arbitration was necessary and that such a change should be implemented by June 2008 when the International Council for commercial Arbitration (ICCA) Conference was scheduled to take place in Dublin. A group prepared a draft Bill that was circulated between the interested professional institutions in Ireland. That draft was however badly prepared and a number of qualified arbitrators, supported by the construction institutions, objected to it.
In April 2007, at the suggestion of the then Attorney General of Ireland, Rory Brady, Engineers Ireland (the IEI) hosted a symposium to examine whether legislative change was needed. It had been hoped that, through discussion involving all interested bodies, a general consensus could be reached. The symposium was divided into two sessions, the first relating to arbitration and the second dealing with conciliation and mediation. All the speakers in the first session agreed that some change in the domestic law of arbitration was necessary. However, Dudley Solan, solicitor, was of the opinion that, whilst certain changes were needed, the extent of those changes should be limited so as to ensure that the High Court maintained a certain supervisory role over arbitrations in Ireland. Michael Collins SC pointed out that changes were certainly needed to the Arbitration Acts 1954 to 1998, since the Acts as they stood were in breach of Ireland's obligations under its membership of the European Union.
Link: Arbitration Act 2010: https://login.westlaw.co.uk/maf/wluk/app/document?&src=rl&srguid=ia744cc640000012c3849188bcf223e82&docguid=I3273BE40E01711DFAEBCDAC8C6BD0AE0&hitguid=I3273BE40E01711DFAEBCDAC8C6BD0AE0&spos=4&epos=4&td=4000&crumb-action=append&context=5
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