The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) has recently released its casework report for 2024. The report provides a comprehensive review of LCIA case-related trends throughout 2024. We summarise some of the key highlights below.

Caseload trends

LCIA referrals were down slightly in 2024, standing at 362 (compared with 377 in 2023). This still sits materially lower than the 2020 Covid peak of 407 referrals but is otherwise largely reflective of the caseload figures in recent years. Similar to 2023, 88% of referrals were for LCIA arbitrations, with the remainder predominantly for fundholding arbitrations and LCIA mediations.

The relief sought by parties in the LCIA arbitrations nearly always included monetary relief, and over 40% of the time this was paired with a request for declaratory relief / specific performance. The sums claimed however were slightly lower than in 2023, with 27% at the Request for Arbitration stage being for over US$20 million.

The LCIA still saw predominantly London seated (89%) and English law arbitrations (78%). Even where English law was not the substantive law, almost two thirds of such cases still chose London as the seat. However, some specific jurisdictions chose to match the substantive law and seat, in particular, Ukraine, Nigeria, Pakistan and New York.   

Industry sectors

Transport and commodities cases continued to lead the way, making up nearly 30% of cases commenced in 2024 (albeit down c.7% on the previous two years). As in 2023, the second two most prominent industries were banking and finance (17%) and energy and resources (10%). The telecommunications industry saw the largest increase, making up less than 1% of cases in 2023, now growing to 4%.

Similar to 2023, over a third of disputes arose out of sale of goods contracts, followed by services contracts (19%) and shareholder / JV agreements (15%).

In recent years, parties have appeared to follow a trend of quickly commencing arbitrations, with the majority of disputes relating to agreements dated within the previous three years.

Parties

International parties continue to heavily use LCIA arbitrations, with 101 jurisdictions represented (up from 91 in 2023). Of this, 75% of cases involved only international parties (no UK parties), whilst 95% of cases involved one or more international party.

Consistent with previous years, a third of parties originated from the UK and Western Europe. Importantly however, 17% of parties originated from Africa, up from 8% in 2023 and 4% in 2022 – with the leading individual jurisdictions being Kenya (7.7%) and Nigeria (2.5%). The report however does note that this significant increase can be attributed to three groups of cases, involving 65 Kenyan parties in total. Outside of these jurisdictions, other significant regions included the MENA region (11% of parties, including the UAE at 4.2%) and Asia (9% of parties).

Interestingly, the report also notes an increase in cases involving states (including government bodies and state-owned entities), making up 14% of cases in 2024 (up from 11% in 2023).

Tribunals

Appointments / formation

Similar to 2023, nearly two thirds of arbitrators were either selected by the parties or by the parties’ nominated arbitrators, with the remaining one third selected by the LCIA Court.

With regard to expedited formation (Article 9A LCIA Rules 2020) and emergency arbitrator appointments (Article 9B) the trend, as in previous years, continues to be that successful applications are the exception rather than the rule.  In 2024 there were 15 applications for expedited formation of the tribunal and 4 applications for an emergency arbitrator. Of these 19 applications only two were granted (one in each category).

Separately, of the 40 applications for consolidations, all were granted (save one superseded by a settlement) and, whilst only two applications for concurrent arbitrations were ruled upon, both were granted.

Composition

Reflecting an ongoing 10-year trend, three-member tribunals continue to be somewhat more commonly used over sole arbitrators.

Tribunal secretaries remain relatively infrequently appointed, with under 20% of LCIA arbitrations using a tribunal secretary in 2024. Over two thirds of these tribunal secretary appointments were to assist three-member tribunals.  

The report also highlights the LCIA’s ongoing push for diversity in tribunal appointments, both with regards to nationality and gender of tribunal members. Despite the prevalence of English law in LCIA arbitrations, 45% of appointments were of non-British arbitrators; the LCIA Court led the way in this respect, appointing half of those non-British arbitrators. Similarly, of the 55% of appointments who were British arbitrators, the LCIA Court selected only 28% of these, with the majority selected by the parties.

With regards to gender diversity, in total a third of tribunal appointments were women. Again, the LCIA Court made the greatest contribution with 45% of its appointments being women. For appointments by co-arbitrators the figure was slightly lower (39%) and for appointments by the parties even more so (21%, a figure dropping to a mere 7% when parties were appointing a presiding arbitrator in a three-member tribunal). These figures indicate that there is scope for more to be done by parties and their representatives, as increased representation can only enrich international arbitration and its community.

Applications

Interim relief applications to tribunals continued to enjoy limited success. The majority of applications in 2024 were for security for costs, of which just under half were either fully or partially successful.

It was a bleaker story for early determination. In 2024, of the 16 applications to tribunals for early determination (under Article 22.1(viii) LCIA Rules 2020) only one was granted. In English seated arbitrations, it will be seen whether the inclusion of an express reference to such procedures in the upcoming reform to the Arbitration Act 1996 (see here for more) will, once in force, encourage parties to make more use of early determination applications.