UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Roger Gherson, Emma Anderson, Cong Gao, Elizaveta Rachkova and Galiya Mustafina, Gherson Solicitors LLP
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
the increasing commercialisation of sport, a theme that featured prominently at the inaugural London Arbitration Week held in December 2025. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions The LCIA and the International Chamber of Com - merce (ICC) remain the two institutions most com - monly used for international arbitration seated in Eng - land and Wales, alongside the sector-specific LMAA for maritime disputes (which operates on an ad hoc, rather than administered, basis). The LCIA received 362 referrals in 2024, with London chosen as the seat in 89% of cases and English law applied in 78%, while the ICC’s 2025 statistics confirm that London remains the second most selected seat globally with 78 cases, narrowly behind Paris (82), reflecting continued strong reliance on established institutional rules, deep pools of specialist arbitrators and the supportive supervisory role of the English courts. No new arbitral institution has been established in England and Wales in the past 12 months. Recent activity has instead centred on the reforms to the Arbi - tration Act 1996 introduced by the Arbitration Act 2025 (effective 1 August 2025), which significantly updated the legislation, bringing it into line with modern dispute resolution, instead of replacing it, and on new market events such as the inaugural London Arbitration Week The Commercial Court, part of the Business and Prop - erty Courts of the High Court, remains the principal court designated to hear applications relating to arbi - trations seated in England and Wales, including chal - lenges to awards and applications for interim relief under Section 44 of the Arbitration Act 1996. It also hears applications for anti-suit injunctions restraining parties from pursuing foreign proceedings in breach of a London-seated arbitration agreement and has exclusive supervisory jurisdiction over London-seated arbitrations, a position reaffirmed in a notable 2025 Court of Appeal decision that restrained a pre-emptive challenge to an award in a Pakistani court. There is no separate, standalone “international commercial court” in England and Wales. The Commercial Court’s spe - cialist judges and established case law instead pro - held in December 2025. 1.4 National Courts
International arbitration remains highly prevalent in England and Wales, with London confirmed as the world’s single most preferred seat in the 2025 Queen Mary University of London/White & Case International Arbitration Survey, chosen by 34% of approximately 2,400 respondents globally, ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong (31% each), Beijing (20%) and Paris (19%). Purely domestic disputes between English parties are more commonly litigated before the national courts, given the cost and procedural advantages of the court system, such as the availability of summary judgment. Where an international element exists, arbitration is used on multiple overlapping bases – as the con - tractually agreed dispute resolution mechanism, as a neutral seat and as a forum supported by strong New York Convention enforceability – as reflected in London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) data showing that London was chosen as the seat in 89% of its 2024 arbitrations even though the great majority of parties were non-UK based. 1.2 Key Industries Shipping and commodities remain the leading sector, although the LCIA’s Transport and Commodities share fell from 36% of referrals in 2023 to 29% in 2024 as its caseload diversified into construction and infrastruc - ture, technology, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and telecoms. Banking and finance continued to gener - ate substantial activity, rising slightly to 17% of LCIA cases in 2024, reflecting the technical complexity and high value typical of financial disputes. Energy and resources remained the third-largest sector despite its share falling from 14% to 10% amid market volatility and the ongoing energy transition. These sectors dominate largely because they involve high-value, cross-border transactions where parties value the confidentiality, technical arbitrator expertise and enforceability advantages that arbitration offers over traditional litigation. More recently, construction, energy-transition and sports-related disputes have also grown in prominence, driven by rising cross-bor - der investment in infrastructure and renewables, and
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