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Arbitration Act 1979 
The Arbitration Act 1979 (c.42) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that 
reformed arbitration law in England and Wales. Prior to 1979, arbitration law was based on the 
Arbitration Act 1950, which allowed use of the "Case Stated" procedure and other methods of 
judicial intervention, which marked English arbitration law as significantly different from that of 
other jurisdictions. The prior law significantly increased the cost and time required for 
arbitration, which made England an unpopular jurisdiction to conduct such negotiations in. As a 
result, while London maintained its traditional position as a centre for arbitration in insurance, 
admiralty and commodities trading, it failed to attract more modern forms of trade. Following 
pressure from industry groups, the Lord Chancellor introduced the Arbitration Bill into 
Parliament, having it passed hours before the dissolution of James Callaghan's government. It 
was given the Royal Assent on 4 April 1979, and commenced working on 1 August 1979. 
The Act completely abolished the "Case Stated" procedure and other forms of judicial 
interference, replacing it with a limited system of appeal to the High Court of Justice and Court 
of Appeal of England and Wales; it also allowed for exclusion agreements limiting the rights of 
parties to arbitration to appeal to the courts, and gave arbitrators the ability to enforce 
interlocutory orders. Academics met the Act with a mixed response; while some praised it for 
bringing English law more into line with that of other nations, others criticised the wording used 
as unnecessarily complex and hazy. The Act did, in the eyes of some commentators, lead to a 
shift in judicial policy away from legal certainty and towards a system focused on speed and 
finality. Having been repealed in its entirety by Section 107(2) of the Arbitration Act 1996, the 
Act is no longer in force. 
Contents 
[hide] 
  1 Background  
o  1.1 Previous law 
o  1.2 Development of the Act 
  2 Act  
o  2.1 Section 1 
o  2.2 Sections 2–6 
  3 Assessment 
  4 References 
  5 Bibliography 
[edit] Background 
[edit] Previous law 

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London was historically a centre for trade and arbitration, which Peter S. Smedresman, writing in 
the Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce divides into three categories of transaction. English 
commodities trading, through bodies such as the Baltic Exchange, specify that any conflicts are 
to be settled through arbitration in London, even when the goods being traded have no relation to 
the United Kingdom.
[1]
 London has also been a centre for arbitration on maritime issues, and 
insurance. However, it failed to significantly attract more modern forms of trade, such as major 
communications developments or high-technology projects, due to the nature of its arbitration 
law. These contracts normally involve large amounts of money and are administered by the 
International Chamber of Commerce, which rarely sent arbitration cases to London due to the 
individual nature of English law on the subject.
[2]
 
In most nations, arbitrators can apply the principle of "amiable composition"; the case is decided 
under broad, sweeping principles of equity, without judicial oversight or the application of 
national commercial law. In England, this was not the case; the Arbitration Act 1950, in Section 
22(1), allowed the courts to instruct an arbitrator to "correct" his decision, if it had an incorrect 
statement of law immediately obvious. In response to this, English arbitrators simply stopped 
giving reasons for their decisions.
[3]
 The second form of judicial oversight was found in Section 
21, and was an application of the "Case Stated" procedure. This allowed judicial review of a 
decision by the High Court of Justice, and was regularly applied during the 1970s, because the 
freeze on interest rates during a delayed case made it attractive for debtors to delay; conversely, 
this made London a far less attractive venue for creditors.
[4]
 
Before the 1979 Act, English law did not provide many ways to avoid the Case Stated procedure, 
even prohibiting parties from agreeing in advance not to use it; this was due to Scrutton LJ's 
statement, in Czarnikow v Roth, Schmidt & Co,
[5]
 that "There must be no Alsatia in England 
where the King's writ does not run".
[4]
 In The Lysland,
[6]
 the Court of Appeal of England and 
Wales gave a decision interpreted as saying that the courts must consider a Case Stated "even if 
there is no great some in dispute, no point of general importance is involved or the answer is 
reasonably clear".
[7]
 Lord Denning's statement in that case has been described as "[T]he death 
knell of arbitrator autonomy", and led to arbitrators almost automatically asking for judicial 
supervision for fear that they would otherwise be found to have committed misconduct.
[8]
 For 
obvious reasons, companies and parties to a case who submit their issues to arbitration expect 
something private, quick, and cheap, with fixed results. The traditional English emphasis on 
judicial oversight, therefore, meant that with the Case Stated procedure, London was a highly 
unpopular venue for arbitration.
[9]
 
[edit] Development of the Act 

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Arbitration Act 1979 The Arbitration Act 1979 (c.42) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed arbitration law in England and Wales. Prior to 1979, arbitration law was based on the Arbitration Act 1950, which allowed use of the "Case Stated" procedure and other methods of judicial intervention, which marked English arbitration law as significantly different from that of other jurisdictions. The prior law significantly increased the cost and time required for arbitration, which made England an unpopular jurisdiction to conduct such negotiations in. As a result, while London maintained its traditional position as a centre for arbitration in insurance, admiralty and commodities trading, it failed to attract more modern forms of trade. Following pressure from industry groups, the Lord Chancellor introduced the Arbitration Bill into Parliament, having it passed hours before the dissolution of James Callaghan's government. It was given the Royal Assent on 4 April 1979, and commenced working on 1 August 1979. The Act completely abolished the "Case Stated" procedure and other forms of judicial interference, replacing it with a limited system of appeal to the High Court of Justice and Court of Appeal of England and Wales; it also allowed for exclusion agreements limiting the rights of parties to arbitration to appeal to the courts, and gave arbitrators the ability to enforce interlocutory orders. Academics met the Act with a mixed response; while some praised ...
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