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24 Asia Pac. L. Rev. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/asiaplwre24 and id is 1 raw text is: ASIA PACIFIC LAW REVIEW, 2016 VOL. 24, NO. 1, 1-15 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10192577.2016.1198542 Taylor & Francis Group Arbitration and Public Policy 2016 Goff Lecture Robert French Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, Australia ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Commercial arbitration being contractually based is a matter of private Received 4 May 2016 law. Its effectiveness depends upon legislative support defined by Accepted 3 June 2016 external public policy considerations. Those considerations invite scru- KEYWORDS tinyof the costs and benefits of commercial arbitration including its Arbitration; commercial effect on the developmnent of commercial law and an appropriate arbitration; public policy; balance between arbitral mechanisms and cornerdal courts. The arbitrability; Lord Goff; growth of commercial arbitration and its application in sensitive UNCITRAL Model Law areas such as consumner contracts of adhesion m-ay enliven public policy responses. Internal constraints in relation to arbitrability and public policy lim-its on enforcemnent play a part in enabling arbitration. to function in a way that is sensitive to the larger social and political environm-ent in which it is conducted. I. Introduction The man in whose name this Annual Lecture is presented, Lord Goff of Chieveley, has an honoured place in the pantheon of great lawyers of the common law world. I thank the City University of Hong Kong for inviting me to present this address, which is the 21st in the series, the first having been delivered by Lord Goff in 1990. The involvement of the University and the sponsors of the Lecture, King & Wood Mallesons and the Building and Construction Industry Council, reflect the worlds of the Academy and practice as well as that of the judiciary in all of which Lord Goff made signal contributions. This Lecture concerns the external public policy environment which underpins and informs the legal regimes which govern arbitration and the internal public policy constraints expressly and impliedly embedded in the legal criteria for setting aside and refusing recognition and enforcement of awards. II. The external public policy environment Commercial arbitration is contractually based and, to that extent, underpinned by private law. It derives efficacy from public law which provides for the recognition and enforcement of awards and a degree of judicial supervision. That is because it is seen as serving a legitimate CONTACT Robert French 0 jsulcs@hcourt.gov.au © 2016 School of Law, City University of Hong Kong