Court intervention coupled with a complex judicial system, led to delays rendering arbitrations inefficient and unattractive. At this juncture so much importance has been placed on the independence of arbitration proceedings from the intervention of domestic courts, that the matter has greatly influenced the arbitration policies of countries in regard to international commercial arbitration laws. The Malaysian government has undertaken various efforts that have advanced Malaysia’s position as a seat of arbitration. In support of that the Malaysian parliament enacted a modern arbitration Act based on the UNCITRAL Model Law in 2005. The said Act recognises that the court does not have inherent jurisdiction to supervise an arbitration proceeding. However, there was some supervisory jurisdiction, confined to the statutory powers contained in the Arbitration Act. To mitigate this recently the Malaysian Parliament has amended the 2005 Act which is the focus point of this article in relation to the practice of international commercial arbitration in Malaysia, how far the arbitration tribunals are free from court intervention.
