What do you need to know about the Arbitration Act 2025?

The Arbitration Act 2025 (the 2025 Act) is the first major update to the law since 1996. It came from law reform advocates (Law Commission Report 2022) rather than a manifesto commitment of the Government and is all about improving the UK’s position as an arbitration centre.

In this article, Arbitrator & Mediator James Tumbridge explains key aspects of the Act.

The Law Commission Report identified several initiatives for the new law: (1) codification of the arbitrator’s duty of disclosure; (2) strengthening arbitrator immunity; (3) introducing summary disposal power; (4) improving the framework for jurisdictional challenges; (5) new default rule for determining the governing law of arbitration; (6) clarification of the court’s powers in support of arbitral proceedings. There are also now rules on emergency arbitrators.

The 2025 Act is designed to modernise the arbitration process and should help secure quicker decisions, and deal with some common issues. A key one is the ability of an arbitrator to summarily dispose of a dispute. As is the importance of court support, for the arbitration process. This is also about keeping London as a world-leading seat of arbitration.

Law governing the arbitration agreement

The current position was set by the Supreme Court in Enka v Chubb: in the absence of an express party choice of governing law of the arbitration agreement, the law of the main contract containing the arbitration agreement governs the latter.

The Act provides that the law of the arbitration agreement will be the same as the law of the seat, unless the parties have expressly chosen otherwise. This is important because in arbitration you could have several laws to consider – for example, the law of the agreement in dispute, the law of the arbitration agreement, and the law of the seat of the arbitration.

The curia law, being the law which sets the powers of the arbitration, can therefore differ from substantive law which may govern the contracts. Further, the curia need not be the law of the seat of arbitration. In the absence of agreement, the curia is normally that of the seat of arbitration, and now we need not debate it, the law will be England if the seat is England, and the parties have not chosen something else.

However, the default rule will not apply to investor-state arbitrations where the arbitration agreement arises out of standing offers to arbitrate in treaties or non-UK legislation.

New procedure to challenge awards

Under the 1996 Arbitration Act, where a tribunal has ruled on jurisdiction, a party which objected to jurisdiction during the arbitration could challenge the award on jurisdictional grounds (under section 67). Under the 2025 Act, when such challenges are brought, the court will generally not (i) entertain any new grounds of objection or any new evidence, or (ii) re-hear evidence already heard by the tribunal. This is about cost-efficiency and avoiding re-litigation of what went before, once in front of a judge.

The 2025 Act also clarifies that where a tribunal has ruled on its jurisdiction, parties cannot apply for a jurisdictional ruling from the court – you must elect one or the other.

Power for summary disposal

There is now an expedited procedure to dispose where a party submits that the other side has no real prospect of succeeding. This is particularly helpful to low-cost arbitration schemes. Additionally, parties can expressly agree to opt out of this if they wish.

Arbitrator duty of disclosure

The 1996 Act contains an express duty of impartiality (and power to apply to remove an arbitrator on the grounds of impartiality). The 2025 Act provides for an express duty of disclosure to support the existing duty of impartiality. It imposes a statutory duty to disclose to the parties any circumstances which might reasonably give rise to justifiable doubts as to an individual’s impartiality.

Arbitrator immunity

The scope of arbitrator immunity is being extended to prevent arbitrators being liable in respect of resignation (unless it can be shown that the resignation was unreasonable) and to provide that arbitrators will not be ordered to pay costs in proceedings for their removal unless the arbitrator is shown to have acted in bad faith.

Emergency arbitrators

Emergency arbitration for urgent interim relief is something the 2025 Act creates. This is catching up with what some arbitration organisations had already created: for example, the CIArb Arbitration Rules 2015, ICC Arbitration Rules and LCIA Arbitration Rules provide for the appointment of emergency arbitrators on an interim basis (prior to the arbitral tribunal being fully constituted).

Support orders

There is a variety of case law on what support a court will give to an arbitration. The 2025 Act makes clear that the court’s powers in respect of preservation of evidence, sale of goods, appointment of receivers etc. applies in respect of ‘a party or any other person’. It therefore clarifies that the court can grant interim and other relief in relation to arbitral proceedings against third parties under section 44 of the 1996 Act.

If you have questions about the Act or any other aspect of ADR, please contact James Tumbridge.