Clause 17

Unless the parties have otherwise agreed in writing, this Act shall not apply to arbitration proceedings commenced before the date of commencement of the International Arbitration (Amendment) Act 2001.

Notwithstanding subsection (1), where the arbitration proceedings were commenced before the date of commencement of the International Arbitration (Amendment) Act 2001, the law governing the arbitration agreement and the arbitration shall be the law which would have applied if this Act had not been enacted.

For the purposes of this section, arbitration proceedings are to be taken as having commenced on the date of the receipt by the respondent of a request for the dispute to be referred to arbitration, or, where the parties have agreed in writing that any other date is to be taken as the date of commencement of the arbitration proceedings, then on that date.