The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) hosted its Annual India Conferences in Mumbai and Delhi on 6 and 7 September 2024. These Conferences were themed ‘New Developments and Reforms in International Arbitration: The Best Path Forward’, and brought together members of the judiciary, lawyers, in-house counsel, and other prominent figures in the field of international…
The 2024 Singapore Convention Week kicked off with a bang on 26 August 2024 with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) hosting its flagship SIAC Symposium at the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. The SIAC Symposium 2024 featured a welcome address by Mr Davinder Singh SC (Chairman, SIAC; Executive Chairman, Davinder Singh Chambers LLC), a keynote address…
Following the morning session of the SIAC Symposium 2024, which explored issues including the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (“AI”), climate change, and trade disruption (see Part 1), the afternoon session consisted of three plenary panel discussions that delved into the core issues shaping the future of arbitration. These pivotal topics comprised: the ethical considerations guiding…
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…
Ms Lucy Reed is a full-time arbitrator and a Visiting Professor at National University of Singapore. Previously, she was the Co-Head of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Global International Arbitration Group. Her prior experience includes acting as the US Agent to the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and as General Counsel of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (“KEDO”). …
In 2021, Southeast Asia saw institutional progress, arbitration-related court decisions, and investment treaty developments. All in all, it was an eventful and, at times, surprising year for the region in terms of arbitration developments. Institutional progress Some Southeast Asian arbitral institutions revamped and revised their arbitration rules as part of their strategic institutional development….
In CBS v CBP [2021] SGCA 4 the Singapore Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s ruling in CBP v CBS [2020] SGHC 23, being a rare example of the Singapore Courts setting aside an award. The arbitrator’s decision not to allow a hearing for oral witness evidence was found to be a breach of…
In December 2020, Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) launched its representative office in New York. In April 2021, SIAC announced in its Annual Report 2020 that United States (“US”) parties accounted for 545 of the approximately total 1,000 new cases filed in 2020. We, as Associate Editors for Southeast Asia and North America, are pleased…
Since COVID-19, virtually everything that can be moved online has been moved online. The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”)’s flagship event, SIAC Congress, is no exception and as such, it was most befitting that the motion of the debate was “This House believes that Virtual Hearings are just as effective as In-Person Hearings“. The debate…
This post covers an interesting discourse during the Singapore International Arbitration Centre’s Summit in New Delhi on 30 and 31 August 2019. In particular, the post focuses on the discussions during Panel Session 1: ‘Masterclass on the use of Institutional Procedures in Arbitration’ held on the second day of the summit. This session was moderated…
In this post, I will compare and discuss the expedited procedure rules (“EP Rules”) used by various arbitral institutions in deciding on a default number of arbitrator(s) for such expedited procedure. A core concern of Article V(1)(d) of the New York Convention is how to weigh between party autonomy and institutional control in arbitration proceedings….
Emergency arbitrator (“EA”) applications are fast gaining popularity among both arbitral institutions and international arbitration users. EA provisions were first introduced in the 2010 SIAC Rules to address the need for emergency interim relief before a tribunal is constituted, and many arbitral institutions have adopted relatively similar EA procedures over the past decade. For example,…
Part I Over recent years we have seen an uptick in requests to insert arbitration clauses in derivatives and other financial product documentation, and most particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Indeed, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), which is responsible for producing the most widely-used industry template of the master agreement, has…
On 30 December 2016, The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) finally released the first edition of its Investment Arbitration Rules (IA Rules). The IA Rules were first published as draft rules on 1 February 2016, and were discussed in a previous article. The IA Rules, which came into effect on 1 January 2017, now reflect…
“Help! I need somebody Help! Not just anybody Help! You know I need someone, help … And now my life has changed in oh so many ways, My independence seems to vanish in the haze …” Help raises a question of need, but does it lead to a loss of the fundamental decision-making power vested…
There has been a lot of attention paid to the various innovations in the new SIAC Rules 2016 such as the possibility of an early dismissal of claims under the new Rule 29. One of the changes to the Rules which has generally been overlooked is that they now require consent of the parties and…
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) published a draft of new investment arbitration rules (the “draft SIAC IA Rules”) for public comment on 1 Feb 2016. They will be finalized on 27 May 2016. The draft SIAC IA Rules are a unique hybrid of modern commercial arbitration rules and specialist investment arbitration rules (e.g. the…
by Gary Born, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP Preliminarily, I am delighted to report on the publication, this month, of the Second Edition of International Arbitration: Law and Practice (2d ed. Kluwer 2015). For readers who are interested in the book, click here. More importantly, I am also delighted to report, in my…
By a recent judgment in Malini Ventura v Knight Capital Pte Ltd and others [2015] SGHC 225 (“Malini“), the Singapore High Court affirmed its commitment to the primacy of arbitration even in situations where the existence of the arbitration agreement is in question. In Malini, Prakash J decided that prima facie existence of an arbitration…
Dear Readers, you may have noticed the dearth of recent posts, for which we make no excuses. It is late summer for the northern hemisphere contributors. At this point, most of us are lingering poolside at the Kluwer International Arbitration Resort and Amusement Park, sipping procedural cocktails in the waning light as the children take…
In AKN v ALC [2015] SGCA 18, the Singapore Court of Appeal (“SGCA”) partially allowed a set of three appeals against a High Court decision to set aside a SIAC award. The result of this decision was to effectively allow the setting-aside, but under a more constrained reading of the grounds for challenge under the…
The availability of expedited procedures providing for fast-track arbitration is by now commonplace under many modern institutional rules; however, the effectiveness of these mechanisms lies ultimately in enforcement and set-aside proceedings before national courts. In AQZ v ARA,1)(2015) SGHC 49. the Singapore High Court recently had to consider, for the first time, a challenge to…
SIAC ended speculation as to who would succeed Dr Michael Pryles as the next President of the SIAC Court of Arbitration by announcing, at the SIAC Annual Appreciation Event on Monday 2 March 2015, the appointment of Mr Gary Born of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, with effect from 1 April 2015. At…
In the recent case of Pricol v. Johnson Controls (Pricol Limited v. Johnson Controls Enterprises Ltd and Ors, Arbitration Case (Civil) No.30 of 2014), the Supreme Court of India declined to intervene in an international arbitration with the SIAC as appointing authority, upholding the parties’ chosen mechanism in a well-reasoned decision which was marked by…
