Australian law

This page looks at Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) law in Australia.

It covers -

• introduction
• national regime
• state/territory legislation
• New Zealand
• key documents

     introduction

ADR law in Australia involves federal and state enactments, reflected in a range of schemes that are specific to particular industries, organisations and enterprises.

Some schemes are highlighted on the following page of this profile.

     national regime

At a national level the International Arbitration Act 1974 (here) reflects the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (here) about procedures for international arbitration, covering all international commercial arbitration conducted in Australia unless otherwise agreed.

The Act also adopts the Convention on the Recognition & Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards - aka 'New York Convention' - (here) and 1965 International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (Washington Convention). It sets out the institutions and procedures that are available for the conduct of international arbitration.

It does not deal with other alternative dispute resolution processes for resolving private international commercial disputes.

     state/territory

Each State/Territory has uniform Commercial Arbitration Acts dealing with domestic arbitration -

New South Wales Commercial Arbitration Act 1984 (here)

Victorian Commercial Arbitration Act 1984 (here)

Queensland Commercial Arbitration Act 1990 (here)

South Australian Commercial Arbitration Act 1986 (here)

Western Australian Commercial Arbitration Act 1985 (here)

Tasmanian Commercial Arbitration Act 1986 (here)

ACT Commercial Arbitration Act 1986 (here)

Northern Territory Commercial Arbitration Act 1985 (here)

     New Zealand

Arbitration in New Zealand is covered by the Arbitration Act 1996 (here), based on the UNCITRAL Model Law.

     key documents

Key documents in Australian alternative dispute resolution include the October 2001 Commonwealth Treasury Department discussion paper (PDF) on the use of dispute resolution in B2C e-commerce, the 2006 National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC) report Legislating for alternative dispute resolution: A guide for government policy-makers & legal drafters and 2006 Indigenous Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management report

   next page  (schemes)