Flore Poloni and Kimberley Bazelais examine the key takeaways from the LCIA’s 2024 Annual Casework Report in Law.com International

The London Court of International Arbitration's (LCIA) annual report for 2024 provides a snapshot of key insights and evolving trends amid global uncertainty.

The LCIA's caseload held steady in 2024 with 318 new arbitrations under the LCIA Rules, only a modest drop from the 327 filings in 2023. The breakdown of amounts in dispute highlights the institution's continued balanced approach towards resolving financially significant, mid-sized, and smaller arbitration cases. Claims exceeding USD 10 million accounted for 36% of all quantified claims, slightly down from 39% in 2023, while disputes valued under USD 5 million also remained virtually stable at 54% (51% in 2023).

Regional shifts

One of the most notable developments is the remarkable increase in participation from African parties. If 2023 marked a watershed for African engagement with a leap from 4% to 8%, 2024 entrenched the shift. Once again, the proportion of African parties has more than doubled, soaring to 17% and propelling Africa into the LCIA’s second-largest regional cohort, only 1% behind Europe.

This surge was particularly driven by an influx of Kenyan participation (nearly 8%, up from 1.1% in 2023). Two multi-party cases featuring multiple Kenyan claimants partly explain the numerical jump, but deeper trends likely play a role: growing confidence in arbitration within East Africa’s fast-developing economies; increased outbound investment; and a preference among international counterparties for an institution perceived as common-law oriented, neutral and established.

Other African jurisdictions joined the uptrend: Nigeria (2.5%), Zambia (1.4%) and Sierra Leone (1.1%) all posted year-on-year gains, while Mauritius and South Africa held steady. This data show that the continent’s appetite for international arbitration is neither episodic nor limited to a handful of natural-resource disputes. Instead, the LCIA may be becoming a default option for African arbitration users across a widening spectrum of sectors.

Conversely, participation from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region declined from 16% to 11%. This downturn contrasts starkly with earlier expectations that MENA parties would remain heavily engaged in LCIA arbitrations, particularly following the dissolution of the DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre. Instead, it appears parties from this region might increasingly opt for regional centres such as the re-organised and re-energised Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) or the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA).

Industry sectors

Down to 29% of cases in 2024 (36% in 2023), the transport and commodities sector nonetheless continues to anchor the LCIA's caseload but appears to show preliminary signs of stabilisation after heightened activity spurred by global supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions. Banking and finance disputes, historically making up the lion's share of LCIA cases alongside energy disputes, slightly edged up to 17% from 15% two years ago, its lowest reported point. The diversification has been striking: only five years prior, these two industry sectors accounted for half of the LCIA docket. Today, these disputes represent less than one-third of the total. Meanwhile, progress in the technology, healthcare and telecommunications sectors collectively underscore the LCIA’s relevance to innovation-driven sectors.

Diversity and inclusion: stability with caveats

Diversity has long been a focal point for the LCIA, which has published statistics in that regard since 2012. In 2024, the LCIA selected women for 45% of its appointments, slightly lower than 2023’s near parity (48%). However, appointments by parties and co-arbitrators continue to lag significantly behind, maintaining overall female arbitrator appointments at around 33%. The LCIA will hope that its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Guidelines issued in December 2024 will urge counsel and co-arbitrators to embed inclusivity in their choices. The effectiveness of these guidelines will depend largely on the arbitration community’s commitment to depart from conservative appointment practices.

Procedural efficiency flourishes

Parties remain adepts of the LCIA’s procedural toolkit. Composite requests, which allow multiple arbitrations to be commenced in a single filing, accounted for 22% of all cases. Consolidation petitions had near-universal approval and, where consolidation was unavailable, parties turned to the concurrent-conduct mechanism provided under Article 22.7 of the LCIA Rules, underlining users' favour for streamlined multi-contract and multi-party disputes.

Early determination, a fast-track disposal procedure introduced in 2020, still attracts some interest, but only one of the 16 applications in 2024 (5% of all new cases) succeeded, illustrating the high bar to cut short a claim or defence.

London's magnetic pull

London is at no risk of being dethroned as the preferred seat for LCIA arbitrations (89%, virtually unchanged from 2023). Even so, the variety of governing laws increased from 27 to 35. This trend will need to be monitored as the new Arbitration Act adopted in early 2025 now mandates that arbitration agreements are governed by the law of the seat rather than the law of the contract unless specified otherwise. Users may feel increasingly confident experimenting with governing laws while retaining London's established arbitration infrastructure and supporting judiciary.

Overall, the 2024 LCIA annual report portray an institution navigating a complex global environment with characteristic steadiness and resilience. Whether this stability sustains will depend on the impact of geopolitics and economics on the disputes landscape and the competitiveness of other major institutions, but the LCIA’s place remains firmly established at the forefront of international dispute resolution.