After a year in effect, 2012 ICC Rules have proven their worth

In November 2008, the International Court of Arbitration (ICC Court) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), based in Paris, opened the first overseas branch of its Secretariat (ICC Secretariat) in Hong Kong, to administer ICC arbitrations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong arbitration community enthusiastically supported the establishment of the ICC Secretariat’s office in Hong Kong. Since 1923, the ICC Court has been administering arbitrations, numbering over 18,500 as of 2012. The ICC continues to be one of the busiest and most respected international arbitration institutions, notwithstanding growing competition from international centres around the world including the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB), the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in the Asian region, among others.

The 2012 ICC Rules

On 1 January 2012, a revised version of the ICC Arbitration Rules came into force, following an exhaustive review process between 2009 and 2011 by the ICC’s Arbitration Commission (the ICC’s body responsible for drafting new arbitration rules, among other things), a taskforce and a drafting committee that it established. This included review and comment by the ICC’s national committees and groups established in more than 90 jurisdictions around the world, including the ICC Hong Kong Group.