The Regional Arbitral Institutes Forum (RAIF) held the 2023 edition of its annual conference on 10 November 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. RAIF consists of nine professional arbitration institutes across the Asia-Pacific region. It serves as both a platform to share knowledge and best practices, and an avenue for collaboration among members and delegates from the…
On 22 February 2024, I am pleased to deliver the 6th ADR Address of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, co-organised by the Australian Disputes Centre. Past lecturers have been senior former or serving Australian judges, with some discussing developments in arbitration. More widely, there has been quite extensive discussion on case law and…
Following the morning session which explored the geopolitics of international arbitration, the next generation of dispute resolution and the freshly-minted draft SIAC Rules (see Part 1), the afternoon session probed into regional and topical dimensions of international arbitration through six technologically-driven and interactive panel discussions. I. Regional Developments, Trends & Forecasts Illuminating Top…
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) held the SIAC Symposium, its flagship conference, during the Singapore Convention Week on 28 August 2023. The SIAC Symposium featured a conversation with Minister K Shanmugam, SC (Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law, Singapore) and a plenary address by Justice Judith Prakash (Justice of the Court of…
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in IP cross-border disputes, including in non-traditional sectors. The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (“KCAB”), which is the sole arbitral institution in Korea that is statutorily authorized to settle disputes under the Korean Arbitration Act, has experienced a gradual increase in IP-related cases. This article aims to…
On 15 March 2023, as part of California International Arbitration Week, California Arbitration and California Lawyers Association ADR Subcommittee organized an interactive event titled ‘Opportunities and New Trends in the US to Asia-Pacific Practice,’ hosted by King & Spalding. The session was moderated by Cedric Chao (Principal, Chao ADR, PC), and featured as speakers Gloria…
Caroline Kenny KC is a barrister, mediator, and arbitrator. She has over 30 years’ experience in commercial disputes. In 2008 she was appointed as King’s Counsel and has since been recognised as a Chartered Arbitrator – the only female Chartered Arbitrator in Australia. Caroline’s arbitration experience therefore spans across various roles within international commercial arbitration…
Nicole Smith is the Vice-President of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ), the leading membership organisation for dispute resolution specialists in New Zealand. In addition to her work with AMINZ, Nicole is also a barrister at Mauao Legal Chambers specialising in commercial litigation and arbitration. Dual qualified in New Zealand and England…
On 14 March 2022, the first day of the inaugural California International Arbitration Week, the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (“JCAA”) hosted a webinar on the rising waves of arbitration in Japan and California. The session was moderated by Kazuhiko Nishihara (Secretary General, Japan International Mediation Center in Kyoto), and featured speakers Yoshinori Tatsuno (Partner, Mori…
On the third day of the Inaugural California International Arbitration Week, Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center (“SVAMC”) held a webinar on the locus of international disputes. The focus of the session was the shifting seat of international disputes, as arbitration’s centre of gravity is steadily advancing to the Pacific. This westward (from a United…
Efficiency in arbitration is an area that is discussed so often it almost feels inefficient to discuss it. Indeed, when the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) (in conjunction with FTI Consulting, and with the support of the Australian Bar Association, Francis Burt Chambers and the WA Arbitration Initiative) launched the results of the…
In my previous post in September 2018, I discussed certain trends in the negotiation of arbitration provisions in derivatives documentation. I mentioned at the outset that the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (“ISDA”) had by then already provided detailed guidance on the use of arbitration clauses in the 2013 ISDA Arbitration Guide. A year on,…
The ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration was held in Singapore in September, examining the future of international energy disputes in the region. There was a focus on the client perspective, with insights from a variety of speakers. The range of participants and speakers was impressive, with practitioners, in-house counsel and institution representatives covering…
After facing one of the largest protests in the city’s history on June 9, and then repeated protest and clashes with police last Wednesday, the Hong Kong government suspended efforts to pass its extradition bill. The bill would have required the city’s judges to extradite criminal suspects to Mainland China with minimal safeguards and facilitated…
Introduction On 2 April 2019, the Supreme People’s Court and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced the signature of the “Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” (“Arrangement”). This announcement as…
The week-long series of events for Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2018 kicked off with a seminar hosted by Latham & Watkins entitled “Ensuring Efficiency in International Arbitration Proceedings: Tips for Asian Users”. The seminar consisted of two roundtable discussions with practitioners and professionals in the field of international arbitration. The first roundtable featured Mr. Bernard…
With some fanfare, on the sidelines of the ICCA Congress hosted in Sydney over 15-18 April, the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) unveiled a glossy brochure entitled “Australia’s Capability in International Commercial Arbitration”. This blog posting explains its key contents, identifying both convincing and unconvincing aspects. Our later blog posting will compare Japan as…
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was signed by 11 of the original TPP Partners on 8 March 2018 in Santiago, Chile. After the United States announced its withdrawal from the original TPP on 23 January 2017,1) The announcement made it clear that the United States was not ‘obliged to refrain from…
Overview In 2015, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria highlighted the importance of positioning Australia as one of the next significant regional commercial hubs. Her Honour reiterated this position in a 2017 speech. Interestingly, similar, yet more subtle, comments were featured in a speech in 2009. Other Australian courts have made similar…
Singapore and Hong Kong are now considered to be amongst the top arbitration seats in the world, rivalling the long-established seats of London, Paris and Geneva. Perpetuating their dominance in the region, parties to contracts in the Asia-Pacific often choose either of these seats by default with no consideration of alternatives. This is underpinned, to…
Recent developments in the international investment scene have also impacted the Asian region. Notably, China and Southeast Asia have emerged not just as growing foreign direct investment (FDI) recipients but also as major sources of outbound FDI. In parallel, the Asian region experienced a proliferation in international investment agreements (IIAs). Asian countries were initially hesitant…
Introduction On 12 July 2016, a five-member arbitral tribunal (the Tribunal) constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) issued its long-awaited award on the merits in an arbitration brought by the Philippines against China. The tribunal’s jurisdiction is derived from UNCLOS; all State parties to UNCLOS…
Introduction On 23 May 2016, CIETAC’s Hong Kong Arbitration Center (CIETAC HKAC) issued for public consultation draft Guidelines for third party funding (the draft Guidelines). Third party funding (TPF) is a hot topic in Hong Kong. The draft Guidelines come in the wake of recent initiatives to clarify the law on TPF in the territory,…
and Paul Tan, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP Short answer: Yes for some actions, but not all. Here is why. The Singapore International Commercial Court (“SICC”) was launched in January 2015 and provides litigants with the benefits of court proceedings and international arbitration without the constraints and setbacks of either option. Thus far, murmurs of…
