International Construction Law Review
THE AMERICAN ARBITRATION ASSOCIATION’S NEW INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION RULES (2001)
WILLIAM KARL WILBURN*
This article briefly discusses the American Arbitration Association’s (“AAA”) International Arbitration Rules, effective November 2001 (“AAA Rules”). To facilitate the discussion, reference is made to another more established set of international arbitration rules with which the reader and practitioner is likely to be familiar, those of the International Chamber of Commerce adopted in 1997 (“ICC Rules”). The ICC Rules and practices as they apply to international construction disputes were recently critiqued by the ICC’s Forum on “Arbitration and New Fields” of the Commission on International Arbitration of the ICC. This Commission issued its findings, authored by Nael Bunni and His Honour Judge Humphrey LLoyd, QC, in their “Final Report on Construction Industry Arbitrations”1
(henceforth referred to herein as “ICC Final Report”).
In general, the AAA Rules offer potential disputants a similar centralised case administration, arbitrator appointment process and hearing procedural safeguards as those found under the ICC Rules. Among the significant differences are ones in the areas of pre-hearing discovery, evidence at the hearing and the ICC’s utilisation of the Terms of Reference procedure.
I. BACKGROUND
The AAA Rules are clearly another step by the AAA to broaden its offer of alternative dispute resolution services to the international community. The ICC began doing so almost 80 years ago.
The ICC was established in Paris in 1919. In 1922, the ICC issued its first Rules of Arbitration and in the next year, the ICC founded the Court of International Arbitration. These original ICC rules were amended or replaced by eight successive revisions.2
The ninth and current version of ICC international arbitration rules was issued in April 1997 for application to all ICC arbitrations occurring after 1 January 1998.
The AAA was established in 1926. The AAA’s domestic arbitration rules are as long-standing as are the ICC’s international rules. However, not until 2001 did the AAA adopt a discrete set of rules governing international arbitrations, the subject of this article. Also in 2001, the AAA furthered its international
* Senior law partner, Government Contracts and Construction Practice Group, Seyfarth Shaw, Washington DC and Brussels; Adjunct Professor for International Contracting, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC; American Arbitration Association Construction Panel Arbitrator.
2 Derains and Schwartz, A Guide to the New ICC Rules of Arbitration
(Kluwer Law International), pp. 1–2.
[2003
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