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ItemConsolidation and Third Party Joinder in International Commercial Arbitration - Procedural Panacea or Poison?( 2023)In recent decades, international trade and commerce has become increasingly complex. When disputes arise there will often be multiple interrelated parties, contracts and claims that are relevant to the adjudication and final resolution of a dispute. While courts in Australia and overseas have powers to consolidate cases and join third parties to litigation for reasons of efficiency and fairness - including to avoid parallel proceedings that could lead to inconsistent results - special considerations apply in the field of international commercial arbitration where primacy has traditionally been given to party autonomy, privity of contract and party consent. These cornerstone principles of international commercial arbitration continue to be tested by developments in modern international commerce – and nowhere is this more acute than in cases involving multi-contract claims and disputes where non-signatory third parties are in some way connected with or involved in the subject matter of the dispute. Many of the major institutional arbitration rules now include provisions for consolidation, joinder and intervention to address these contemporary issues. However, there remain unresolved tensions between such procedures and the principles of party autonomy and consent that underpin international arbitration as a contractual and voluntary process. Thorny practical issues can also arise where tribunals, institutions and courts exercise their discretion to order consolidation or joinder in arbitration, as this will invariably involve procedural compromises that affect the rights of one or more parties. This extends to the appointment of the arbitral tribunal and other adaptations to accommodate new parties or claims once arbitral proceedings have commenced. This article explores some of these issues with a particular focus on Australia’s international commercial arbitration regime. Part 1 examines the rationales for and against consolidation and joinder in international arbitration, and general consent-based principles and other legal theories that have been applied by courts and tribunals to give effect to these procedures. Part 2 analyses how these issues are dealt with in the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth) (IAA) and the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration institutional rules; and provides a comparative analysis with a sample of overseas national laws, judicial approaches and major institutional arbitration rules. The paper concludes by revisiting traditional approaches to consolidation and third-party joinder in international commercial arbitration, and offers some suggestions for reforms to Australia’s international arbitration regime to ensure that it continues to serve its underlying purposes while also meeting the modern demands of international commerce. Two proposals for reforms to the IAA are considered: (1) an “opt out” consolidation provision; and (2) an “opt out” third-party joinder provision – which would empower both tribunals and courts to make orders with respect to consolidation, joinder and intervention in certain circumstances.