New Arbitration Legislation for South Africa

International Arbitration

South Africa does not have an international arbitration regime that meets the standards set by the UNCITRAL Model Law. This is a serious impairment to South Africa’s ability to be the seat of international arbitration.

In 1998 the SA Law Review Commission published recommendations and a draft Bill to address this serious problem. To date this has however failed to make it onto the legislative agenda of the Government. It seems that there is currently renewed interest in this.

The following documents are of interest:

The SALRC 1998 Report on International Arbitration 

Draft Summary of Updated International Bill (July 2013) (2)

Domestic Arbitration

South Africa’s domestic arbitration legislation is also in need of revision and updating. Again the SA Law Review Commission has already in 2001 published a draft Bill to address this. To date this too has failed to make it onto the legislative agenda of the Government. It seems that there is currently renewed interest in this.

The SALRC 2001 Report on Domestic Arbitration 

Draft Summary of Updated Domestic Bill (July 2013)