ABSTRACT
Much recent empirical research and even more anecdotal evidence identifies growing costs and delays as a major problem in international arbitration. This may sound familiar. Similar complaints emerged over the 1980s and early 1990s regarding international commercial arbitration (ICA). The major arbitral institutions revised their Arbitration Rules in the late 1990s to encourage greater time-efficiencies as well as the capacity of the parties and arbitrators to tailor the arbitral process to their particular needs. The International Arbitration Amendment Act 2010, federal legislation of the Commonwealth of Australia enacted on 7 July 2010, is supposed to offer a new dawn for ICA in Australia. The nation had long tended to exhibit quite an ambivalent attitude towards arbitration, both domestic and international. As a federation of former British colonies, Australia inherited elaborate arbitration legislation from England. Persistently low levels of ICA activity, or Australia passing', have therefore attracted increasing concern particularly among Australian policy-makers and legal professionals.
