London Court of International Arbitration - History

History

On 5 April 1883, the Court of Common Council of the City of London set up a committee to draw up proposals for the establishment of a tribunal for the arbitration of domestic and, in particular, of trans-national commercial disputes arising within the ambit of the City.

The Law Quarterly Review wrote at the inauguration of the tribunal "his Chamber is to have all the virtues which the law lacks. It is to be expeditious where the law is slow, cheap where the law is costly, simple where the law is technical, a peacemaker instead of a stirrer-up of strife."

In 1884, the committee submitted its plan for a tribunal that would be administered by the City of London Corporation, with the co-operation of the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry. However, though the plan had arisen out of an identified and urgent need, it was to be placed on hold pending the passing of the English Arbitration Act 1889.

In April 1891, the scheme was finally adopted and the new tribunal was named The City of London Chamber of Arbitration. It was to sit at the Guildhall in the City, under the administrative charge of an arbitration committee made up of members of the London Chamber and of the City Corporation.

The Chamber was formally inaugurated on 23 November 1892, in the presence of a large and distinguished gathering, which included the then President of the Board of Trade. Considerable interest was also shown both by the press and in legal commercial circles.

In April 1903, the tribunal was renamed the London Court of Arbitration and, two years later, the Court moved from the Guildhall to the nearby premises of the London Chamber of Commerce. The Court's administrative structure remained largely unchanged for the next seventy years.

In 1975, the Institute of Arbitrators (later the Chartered Institute) joined the other two administering bodies and the earlier arbitration committee became the Joint Management Committee, reduced in size from the original twenty four members to eighteen, six representatives from each of the three organisations. The Director of the Institute of Arbitrators became the Registrar of the London Court of Arbitration.

In 1981, the name of the Court was changed to The London Court of International Arbitration, to reflect the nature of its work, which was, by that time, predominantly international.