This states that an arbitrator shall be immune from any liability relating to the carrying out of his mandate provided he or she does so with reasonable care. One provision to watch out for is the novel “immunity of arbitrator” provision at section 20. Arbitration specialists who spend days on end fighting arbitration matters in court will understand the significance of this distinction, which is aimed at ensuring that a party’s choice of ‘place’ of arbitration, i.e., the legal seat of arbitration, is not undermined by a judicial finding that such a choice was merely intended to dictate the ‘location’, i.e., the venue, of hearings.ģ. Another clear distinction is made, in terminology this time, as between the ‘place’ of arbitration and the ‘location’ of arbitration (at sections 3 and 23). This is crucial as it sets the important starting point for those involved in a foreign-seated arbitration with a Myanmar connection that there should be little room for the Myanmar courts to import domestic provisions of the Arbitration Law into their foreign arbitration proceedings.Ģ. There is a clear distinction at section 2 between domestic arbitration, to which the whole of the Arbitration Law applies, and foreign arbitration, to which only select provisions apply. Although it will remain to be seen how it is to be given effect in practice, there are certain salient features of the Arbitration Law which are immediately worthy of discussion, as follows:ġ. Many provisions of the Arbitration Law can be traced back to the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (the Model Law).

Myanmar will in due course release an official English version of the Arbitration Law, albeit the Myanmar version would nonetheless prevail (pursuant to the Constitution of Myanmar). The Arbitration Law is currently only available in the Myanmar language (available here), although there are several English translations publicly available. This step constitutes a significant development for a territory whose pre-existing arbitral legislation was dated and in compelling need of reform. The Arbitration Law gives effect to Myanmar’s ratification of the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention). On 5 January 2016, the Parliament of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Myanmar) passed the Arbitration Law, Union Law No. This post comes to us from Sheila Ahuja of Allen & Overy. Sheila is a Consultant in the International Arbitration Group at Allen & Overy based in Hong Kong. She was part of a team at Allen & Overy that was involved in reviewing the Myanmar Arbitration Bill and suggesting revisions and commentaries with the aim of bringing the Bill in line with the Model Law and legislation in other arbitration friendly jurisdictions.

English to myanmar law translate