The long-anticipated reforms to the UK’s arbitration framework officially came into force on August 1, modernising the Arbitration Act 1996 and reinforcing the UK’s status as a leading global hub for dispute resolution.
For a detailed overview of the key changes introduced by the Arbitration Act 2025, see our earlier blog post ‘The UK Arbitration Bill Becomes an Act: Key Changes’. We have provided a short refresher on the most salient changes below:
- Governing law of arbitration agreements: The 2025 act establishes a new default rule that the law of the seat of arbitration will govern the arbitration agreement unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Summary disposal: Arbitral tribunals now have express power to summarily dismiss claims or defences with no real prospect of success.
- Arbitrator duties and protections: The 2025 act codifies the duty of arbitrators to disclose any circumstances that might reasonably give rise to doubts about their impartiality and extends arbitrator immunity in cases of resignation or removal.
- Emergency arbitrators and court support: The 2025 act formally recognises emergency arbitrators and clarifies the enforceability of their orders while also expanding the courts’ powers to grant interim relief against third parties in support of arbitration.
- Streamlined jurisdictional challenges: The process for challenging a tribunal’s jurisdiction has been refined, limiting the scope for full rehearing in court and reducing opportunities for delay and duplicative proceedings.
Whilst these reforms are not groundbreaking, they do address key issues that have emerged over the past three decades and align the UK’s arbitration regime with international best practices.
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