LMAA Arbitration: It Starts and Ends with the Contract.

One of the defining features of LMAA arbitration is often misunderstood.
It is not pattern-driven.

It does not ask: “What usually happens?”

It asks: what does THIS contract say, on THESE facts? That is the discipline.

An LMAA tribunal will narrow the issue, apply the clause, and reach a decision. If the contract provides the mechanism, that is the method. Full stop. No optimisation. No modelling.

Everything starts from the contract. And everything returns to it.

From there:

- Identify the precise clause
- Establish the actual facts
- Apply one to the other
- Reject anything not grounded in the agreement

Nothing more. Nothing less.

This is why LMAA reasoning is distinctive. It demands precision, clarity, and economy of words. It is not about stating the law in the abstract. It is about applying the clause to the facts within a commercial context.

Take a typical laytime dispute. The real question is not: “What is the fair outcome?”

It is: "What does the charterparty mechanism require in THIS scenario?"

Each case turns on its own contract and its own evidence. And that is where many arguments fail.

LMAA tribunals will consistently reject:

- implied terms (unless unavoidable)
- hypothetical calculations
- poor or inconsistent evidence
- arguments detached from the charterparty

One further peculiarity of LMAA arbitration is confidentiality.

Awards are not public.
This preserves commercial sensitivity and allows parties to present their case openly, without external pressure or strategic positioning for future cases.

It also reinforces a key point: each dispute is decided on its own contract and its own facts, not by reference to a body of published precedent.

Because in arbitration, credibility is everything.

In my view, the value of an LMAA arbitrator is not simply in knowing the law.
It is in applying the contract with judgment, discipline, and commercial awareness.

Arbitration is not about producing an answer. It is about producing the RIGHT answer, for the RIGHT contractual reasons.

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