On 22 August 2023, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) published the Draft 7th Edition of the SIAC Rules (the “Draft Rules”) for public consultation. The Draft Rules introduce several noteworthy changes as part of a concerted effort to “raise the bar on efficiency, expedition, and cost-effectiveness” (see SIAC Registrar’s Report). The public consultation period…

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…

At the dawn of the New Year, following their adoption in November 2020, the revised DIFC-LCIA Rules of Arbitration (the “2021 DIFC-LCIA Rules”) have now entered into force with effect from 1st January 2021. Readers of this blog will recognise the DIFC-LCIA as the free zone sister organization of the London Court of Arbitration (LCIA)…

Introduction  The Prague Rules have been widely discussed over the past few months, among others, on this blog.1)Posts on the topic of the Prague Rules can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Yet, to the knowledge of the authors, none of those discussions has specifically addressed the application of…

Many arbitration centres trumpet innovativeness as their selling point. One commonly cited proof of innovativeness is ‘software upgrades’, i.e., centres revising rules to introduce new arbitral procedures. These are intended to make arbitration cheaper, faster, and fairer. Introducing New Arbitral Procedures – First Movers New procedures introduced over the past decade include emergency arbitration (“EA“),…

A heated debate has been ignited by the results of the 2018 Queen Mary Survey, which highlighted time and cost as the most fervid complaints respondents had regarding arbitration. In order to address these issues, a series of measures have been implemented by major international arbitral institutions in recent years in order to counteract significant…