Stop press - Amendments to International Arbitration Act passed

The Australian Parliament has just passed the International Arbitration Amendment Bill, which is intended to make Australia even more attractive as a seat for international arbitration. The bulk of the changes will come into effect upon Royal Assent, which is expected soon.

There have been some changes to the International Arbitration Amendment Bill since it was introduced into Parliament, the most important being:

• a party seeking to enforce a foreign arbitral award will no longer be required to seek the leave of the court to do so
• an arbitral tribunal will have the power to make orders allowing a party or an expert to inspect, photograph, observe or conduct experiments on evidence, or to order security for costs
• an arbitrator will now not be liable for anything done, or omitted to be done, in good faith in his or her capacity as arbitrator
• an entity that appoints, or fails or refuses to appoint, a person as arbitrator is not liable in relation to the appointment, failure or refusal if it was done in good faith.