International Construction Law Review
BOOK REVIEW
THOMAS J STIPANOWICH
Commercial Arbitration in Australia. By Doug Jones. Law Book Co: Thomson Reuters Australia Limited, 2011. Paperback. ISBN 978-0-455-22858-7. 626 pp. (inc. Appendices, Index and Tables). A$150.00.
The growth of globalised commerce and law practice and the widespread, instantaneous communication made possible by the Internet and social media have produced seemingly limitless dialogue on binding arbitration and dispute resolution processes. We rub up persistently against the spheres of international arbitration, including investment arbitration, and the varied domestic laws and practices of different countries. Listservs and online opinion pages inundate us daily with an incessant stream of case decisions, empirical data, and personal “perspectives”. What is sorely lacking, sadly, is depth, breadth and integration—tools that concisely and systematically describe and analyse evolving arbitration law and practice in a manner that provides a meaningful, valuable image of the whole. This is precisely what Doug Jones brings forth in Commercial Arbitration in Australia, a particularly welcome addition to the daunting onslaught of arbitration material now being produced.
Today, as construction lawyers the world over know well, even clients of moderate size are confronting the global marketplace. At this appropriate time, Commercial Arbitration in Australia details one leading economy’s decision to embrace the leading template for national laws on international arbitration—the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration—as the foundation of its domestic arbitration law. Jones’ painstaking, systematic commentary on the impact of Australia’s new Commercial Arbitration Bill 2010, which at the time of Jones’ book’s publication had only been enacted in New South Wales but which should ultimately be the governing law of all Australia, offers a powerful argument for the benefits of harmonising domestic and international arbitration law. For those of us in jurisdictions like the United States that rely most heavily on judicial “fleshing out” of statutes governing arbitration, with mixed results, the “modified UNCITRAL” model offers a refreshing and instructive counterpoint.
It is hard to imagine anyone more ideally suited to produce Commercial Arbitration in Australia than Doug Jones. A distinguished, long-time practitioner of construction law (with Clayton Utz) with extensive experience as a domestic and international advocate and arbitrator, Jones is currently the President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has actively led or participated in most of the organizations engaged in the development, administration and regulation of arbitration in Australia—a multi-hat midwife to the legal evolution he describes in this book.
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