UNIONE™ Publishes International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution Rules v3.0 - Full Draft Released
61 articles. Six parts. The most comprehensive set of arbitration rules ever published by a new institution - with features no legacy institution has ever attempted.
UNIONE™ today published the complete text of its International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution Rules v3.0 - the full 61-article framework governing all proceedings administered by the institution.
The publication of Rules v3.0 marks the completion of a two-year drafting process that began with a fundamental question: what would international arbitration rules look like if they were designed from scratch, in 2026, for the world as it actually operates - rather than adapted from frameworks developed decades ago for a very different commercial environment?
The answer is in 61 articles and six parts. Below, the Secretariat outlines the key features that distinguish Rules v3.0 from anything that has come before.
The Enforcement Readiness Review - Articles 42–49
The ERR is the feature that defines UNIONE™ as an institution. Articles 42 through 49 codify the complete ERR process - from the Tribunal's obligation to submit a draft award to the Secretariat through to the issuance of the Enforceability Certificate and its attachment to the final award.
Article 42.1 establishes the core obligation: before any UNIONE™ award is finalised, UNIONE™'s Award Review Panel must review the draft award for enforceability considerations. This is not optional. It is built into the procedure.
Article 48 sets out the Certificate rating system - High Enforceability, Standard Enforceability, and Jurisdiction-Specific Considerations - with the obligation that the Certificate accompany every published award. Article 48.5 sets the maximum review time at 21 days from receipt of the draft award.
No other arbitration institution has anything like this. ICC, SIAC, and LCIA all conduct post-issuance scrutiny of awards for formal compliance - but none conducts a pre-issuance enforceability assessment. The ERR changes the fundamental architecture of what an arbitration institution does.
Article 28 - AI Evidence
Rules v3.0 is the first set of arbitration rules in the world to codify specific provisions governing AI-generated and AI-assisted evidence. Article 28 establishes disclosure obligations, authentication standards, expert verification requirements for AI-generated evidence that is central to a claim, and the Tribunal's authority to appoint a technical expert where AI methodology is in genuine dispute.
This provision was driven by cases already in the arbitration pipeline - including cases where AI-generated financial models had been submitted as expert evidence without any disclosure that the model was AI-generated. The arbitration community has been dealing with this problem on an ad hoc basis for two years. Article 28 gives it a codified framework for the first time.
The Prevention Stage - Articles 7–12
Rules v3.0 begins, uniquely, with the Prevention Stage. Part II of the Rules (Articles 7–12) governs the prevention framework - the Dispute Prevention Certificate, the Standing Neutral mechanism, and the Prevention Stage protocol. This part of the Rules has no equivalent in any other institution's framework.
The Prevention Stage is default-on - meaning that if parties have not expressly opted out in their arbitration clause, UNIONE™ will offer Prevention Stage services at the contract stage. Parties who want to opt out can do so explicitly by using the Standard Clause without the Prevention Protocol.
Part VI - Administration and Transparency
Part VI of the Rules covers institutional administration - fees, the Cost-Certainty Pledge, and critically, Article 62: the Performance Transparency System. Article 62 requires UNIONE™ to publish annual performance data - including award timeline compliance, ERR completion rates, panel diversity statistics, and cost data. This data must be published within 90 days of each calendar year end and must be independently audited.
The 2025 Institutional Impact Report - the first published under Article 62 - is available on the UNIONE™ website.
What Happens Now
Rules v3.0 is in effect. All cases filed from are governed by v3.0. Cases filed before this date continue under the version of the Rules applicable at the time of filing, unless both parties agree in writing to transition to v3.0.
The full Rules text - all 61 articles - is available on the UNIONE™ website with commentary, worked examples, and clause selection guidance. A downloadable PDF and the GADRA User Guide for General Counsel are also available.
