Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2013

The Arbitration (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 will come into effect on a day to be appointed by the Secretary for Justice. Its purpose is to amend the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap 609) (“the Ordinance”) to implement the “Arrangement Concerning Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau Special Administrative Region“(“the Arrangement”) signed by the Hong Kong and Macau Governments on 7 January 2013, referred to in the article above.

The Bill also makes miscellaneous amendments to the Ordinance, including the following:-

• Addition of a new Part 3A providing for the enforcement of emergency relief granted by an emergency arbitrator, namely that, with leave of the court, any emergency relief granted by an emergency arbitrator in or outside Hong Kong is enforceable in the same manner as an order or direction of the court.
• Amendment of section 75 of the Ordinance to provide that if the parties to arbitration have agreed that the costs of the arbitration are to be taxed by the court, the costs are to be taxed on a party and party basis.
• Addition of a new Division 4 to Part 10 of the Ordinance, providing for the requirements relating to the enforcement of Macau arbitration awards in Hong Kong, including the evidence to be produced for enforcement of Macau awards and the circumstances in which enforcement of Macau awards may be refused.
• Addition of four new parties to the New York Convention, namely Fiji, Liechtenstein, Sao Tome and Principe and Tajikistan.
• Consequential amendments to the Rules of High Court as regards the enforcement of arbitral awards under those Rules.