LCIA RULES 2020 ENTER INTO FORCE

The revised London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) Rules have now come into force, applying to all LCIA arbitrations commenced on or after 1 October 2020.

The new Rules have been warmly welcomed by the international arbitration community, receiving recognition for the way that they enhance efficiency and flexibility, while staying true to the LCIA Rules’ traditional light-touch approach.

The new Rules allow for multiple arbitrations to be commenced in one “composite Request” and for consolidation in a wider set of circumstances. They confirm the tribunal’s wide discretion in relation to all aspects of arbitral procedure, including an express power to order early determination of claims or counterclaims which are manifestly without legal merit. There is also a move to electronic submissions and communications as the default, and an express power for tribunals to order virtual hearings. As a further efficiency-focused measure, the LCIA’s existing approach to tribunal secretaries has been codified into the Rules themselves.

We set out our detailed assessment of the impact of these and the other most significant changes to the Rules in our earlier blog post on the revisions.

The new Rules are also covered in our podcast: The LCIA Rules 2020 – what you need to know. The podcast can be listened to on SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.

We have produced two resources covering the practical impact of the changes, a Step by Step Guide to Arbitration under the LCIA Rules 2020 and an interactive Comparison of Key Arbitral Institutions table. Electronic copies of these are available from arbitration.info@hsf.com.

For more information, please contact Andrew Cannon, Partner, Vanessa Naish, Professional Support Consultant, Rebecca Warder, Professional Support Lawyer, or your usual Herbert Smith Freehills contact.