ISDA's December 2018 revised arbitration guide

ISDA’s December 2018 revised arbitration guide available here, contains many model clauses submitting to various arbitral tribunals.  Of wider interest is its useful overview of the pros and cons. There was renewed interest in arbitration last year as a reaction to the possibility of a hard Brexit leading to the lapse of the Brussels convention on recognition and enforcement, because arbitration benefits from the separate New York Convention on recognition and enforcement of arbitration awards, to which almost 160 countries are party, and it was therefore suggested that this could be a substitute for the lapsed Brussels regime). This is probably wrong, because even in the hardest of Brexits, the UK will become a signatory to the Hague Convention (currently about 30 signatories – the same as Brussels – and rising) within a few months of Brexit, and Hague provides an acceptable structure for mutual recognition and enforcement.  Arbitration is however useful where your client’s counterparty is in a jurisdiction where there is no simple process to enforce an English judgment.