Media Release

Organisation: Justice and Electoral Committee

For release: 12 May 2017

Have your say on changes to New Zealand’s arbitration law

The Justice and Electoral Committee is inviting public submissions on the Arbitration Amendment Bill.

The bill is a member’s bill sponsored by National MP Paul Foster-Bell. It proposes changes to the Arbitration Act 1996, which sets rules for resolving private and commercial disputes by arbitration in New Zealand. The bill aims to bring greater clarity and certainty to our arbitration law, and make it more consistent with laws in other countries.

The changes proposed in the bill would:

• give arbitration clauses in trust deeds the same effect as arbitration agreements

• allow a tribunal appointed under a trust to appoint legal representatives for beneficiaries who are unable to represent themselves, such as children

• extend the confidentiality of arbitration to related court proceedings

• more clearly define when an arbitral award can be set aside

• require objection to an arbitration tribunal’s jurisdiction to be raised in a timely manner.

Tell the Justice and Electoral Committee what you think

Send your submission on the bill by midnight on 22 June 2017.

For more details about the bill:

• Read the full content of the bill

• What’s been said in Parliament about the bill?

ENDS

© Scoop Media