Commentary on provisions of Act Arbitral proceedings and powers of the court Section 8: Emergency arbitrators
Arbitral rules sometimes provide a regime for the appointment of emergency arbitrators. An emergency arbitrator is appointed on an interim basis, pending the constitution of the full arbitral tribunal, to make orders on urgent matters, for example for the preservation of evidence. Once constituted, the full tribunal can usually review the orders of the emergency arbitrator.
	Under the 1996 Act, when a normal arbitrator makes an order during arbitration proceedings, and an arbitrating party fails to comply with that order, possible consequences include the following. The arbitrator can issue a peremptory order (by section 41 of the 1996 Act), and if there is still no compliance, an application can be made to court for the court to order compliance with the arbitrator’s order (by section 42 of the 1996 Act). Alternatively, an application can be made directly to court, for the court to make its own order (by section 44 of the 1996 Act). Section 8 of this Act amends the 1996 Act to extend that scheme to emergency arbitrators.