BIMCO’s Documentary Committee has agreed to revise and simplify its Dispute Resolution Clause.
It hopes to shorten and simplify what has become BIMCO’s longest standard clause, partly by removing the mediation provision that was added to the clause in 2002.
BIMCO said that a free-standing mediation clause will be published for parties that wish to invoke mediation for all, or part of a dispute, once arbitration proceedings have commenced.
The association added that, following the addition of Hong Kong as a fourth named arbitration venue, the BIMCO clause will be consolidated into a single provision that operates with any of the named arbitration venues. At present, each of the named venues has their own section in the Dispute Resolution Clause.
In the proposed new clause, users will select the applicable law, place of arbitration, number of arbitrators and the procedural rules to give effect to the clause.
The new clause will be submitted to the BIMCO Documentary Committee for approval in May 2020.
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