163 ARBITRATION LAW UNCITRAL Expedited Arbitration Rules* Melissa Balıkçı Sezen Introduction At its fifty-first session in 2018, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”) agreed that Working Group II should be mandated to take up issues relating to expedited arbitration.1 As seen in many arbitral institutions, expedited arbitration rules set out simplified procedures which are aimed at reducing the time of proceedings as well as costs. The work aimed “at improving the efficiency of the arbitral proceedings and expedited arbitration was described as a streamlined and simplified procedure with a shortened time frame, which made it possible to reach a final resolution of the dispute in a cost- and time-effective manner.”2 The work also aimed to increase the efficiency of the proceedings while ensuring due process and fair treatment of the parties. On 9 July 2021, the UNCITRAL adopted its expedited arbitration rules (the “Expedited Arbitration Rules”), during its fifty-fourth session.3 The Expedited Arbitration Rules are due to come into effect on 19 September 2021, when they will be officially published in the six official languages of the United Nations. The draft Expedited Arbitration Rules are published with draft Explanatory Notes to the UNCITRAL Expedited Arbitration Rules (which are planned to be finalized in the second half of 2021), and shall be used together with the UNCITRALArbitration Rules and will form an appendix of the latter. * Article of August, 2021 1 For the draft UNCITRAL Expedited Arbitration Rules please see: https://undocs. org/A/CN.9/1082 2 Paragraph two of the draft UNCITRAL Expedited Arbitration Rules please see: https://undocs.org/A/CN.9/1082 3 Supra note 1.
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