Singapore

New York Convention, Reciprocity, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Singapore

(Drew & Napier LLC)/ /Leave a comment

Arbitration’s key strength lies in the near-universal enforcement of its arbitral awards. The 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“New York Convention”) offers parties the benefit of going under a uniform enforcement regime in all of its Contracting States. But whilst it is a popular choice, the New York Convention…

Arbitration Award, Emergency Arbitrator, Enforcement, Singapore

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On 7 October 2022, the High Court of the Republic of Singapore (“High Court”) delivered a landmark decision on the enforceability of foreign emergency arbitration awards in CVG v CVH. The High Court rejected the enforceability of the emergency award on the ground of procedural irregularity, reinforcing the importance of due process even in cases where…

Jurisdiction, Pleadings, Remission, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore

(Singapore Management University)/ /Leave a comment

When determining what matters fall within the scope of submission to arbitration, five sources are relevant: the parties’ pleadings, the agreed list of issues, opening statements, evidence adduced, and closing submissions: CDM v CDP [2021] 2 SLR 235 at [18]. If a court, on an analysis of these five sources, finds that an award should…

Bankruptcy, Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, China, Claims Trading, Enforcement, HK Arbitration Week, Hong Kong, Insolvency, Singapore

(Allen & Overy) and (Allen & Overy LLP)/ /Leave a comment
HK45

Allen & Overy’s webinar on the second day of Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2022 brought together six practitioners from the fields of arbitration, insolvency and enforcement to discuss the key practical and strategic considerations when acting for and against parties in financial distress. Guided through a hypothetical case study involving jurisdictions such as Hong Kong,…

Arbitrators, Diversity, Institutional Arbitration, Interviews with Our Editors, SIAC, Singapore, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

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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”). …

Conditional fee agreements, Contingency Funding, Costs, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Counsel, Counsel fees, Fee Agreeements, Hong Kong, outcome related fee structures, Singapore

(Shearman & Sterling LLP) and (Shearman & Sterling)/ /Leave a comment

In Singapore, lawyers and their clients will soon be able to enter into conditional fee agreements (“CFAs”) for arbitrations and certain court proceedings. CFAs provide parties with an alternative to traditional fee arrangements and third-party funding (“TPF”) by enabling part or all of their lawyers’ fees and costs, as well as an uplift fee, to…

Admissibility, Arbitrability, Jurisdiction, Singapore

, (Singapore Management University)/ /Leave a comment

The distinction between jurisdiction and admissibility (the “Distinction”) has important consequences in international arbitration. Chief among these is the determination of the permissible extent of a national court’s intervention regarding a final award;1)Gretta Walters, “Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole: Do Res Judicata Challenges in International Arbitration Constitute Jurisdictional or Admissibility Problems?” (2012)…

2021 in Review, Anti-arbitration Injunction, arbitration rules, Confidentiality, Investor-State arbitration, Malaysia, Maritime Arbitration, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore, Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Vietnam

(Clifford Chance Asia) and , / /1 Comment

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….

Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tonga, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Taylor Wessing)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

The Kingdom of Tonga is dedicated to furthering the development of arbitration. A little more than a year ago, this blog published a post reporting that Tonga had acceded to the New York Convention on 12 June 2020. The New York Convention came into force for Tonga on 10 September 2020, and exactly three months…

Korea, Maritime Arbitration, Shipping, Singapore

(Virtus Law LLP (Stephenson Harwood (Singapore) Alliance)) and (Peter & Kim)/ /Leave a comment

This post examines the distinctive features and positive aspects of the maritime arbitration infrastructure of Singapore and South Korea while also exploring areas in which there is room for improvement in order to make these regional centers attractive to a wider international audience.1)Inni In Young Choi of Shin & Kim also contributed to this post. …

Appeal, Procedural Error, Procedural Fairness, Procedural Order, Set aside an arbitral award, Set aside an international arbitral award, Singapore, Witness

and (WongPartnership LLP)/ /Leave a comment

It is trite that an award may be set aside if there has been a breach of the rules of natural justice. This may arise from, among others, a tribunal’s procedural ruling. However, during the arbitration, there is no recourse for parties to challenge such procedural rulings. This was the situation in CBS v CBP…

Costs in arbitral proceedings, ICC Arbitration, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore, Terms of Reference

(Advocate, Arbitrator and Mediator) and / /Leave a comment

The Singapore Court of Appeal (“CA”) recently handed down CBX and anor v CBZ and ors [2021] SGCA(I) 3 (“CBX”), setting aside, exceptionally, the awards.1)The views expressed in this article are solely the views of the authors, and are not representative of the organisations they are affiliated with. Significantly, the law was clarified, to a…

Enforceability, Incapacity, Non-existent parties, Null and void, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore

(Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers)/ /Leave a comment

Where C commences an arbitration against a non-existent entity E, and D defends the arbitration in the guise of E, can an award rendered in favour of E be enforced by D against C?1)This article is written in the author’s personal capacity. The opinions expressed are entirely the author’s own, and do not reflect the…

Procedural Fairness, Set aside an arbitral award, SIAC, Singapore, Singapore Court of Appeal, Singapore International Arbitration Centre, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, UNCITRAL Model Law, Witness, Witness Conferencing, Witness Statement

, (Clyde & Co Clasis Singapore)/ /Leave a comment
Clyde & Co.

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…

Civil Procedure, Costs, Enforcement, Hong Kong, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore

(Queen Mary University of London)/ /1 Comment

Where a plaintiff unsuccessfully applies to set aside an arbitral award or resist enforcement of the same, should the costs of the application, as a default rule, be awarded to the defendant on a standard or indemnity basis? The recent string of Singapore decisions on BTN v BTP address this question from a Singapore perspective….

Australia, Singapore, Stay of Proceedings, Waiver

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The concept of ‘waiver’ is a nebulous creature, crossing into the realms of estoppel, repudiation and variation. For the purposes of ss 7(2) and 7(5) of Australia’s International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth), Australian jurisprudence has distinguished between ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ waiver, as summarised in ACD Tridon v Tridon Australia [2002] NSWSC 896 (‘ACD Tridon’). ‘Strong’ waiver…

2020 In Review, Applicable Law, Arbitration Agreement, Australia, English courts, French Law, Governing Law, Law governing the arbitration agreement, Pacific Islands, Paris Court of Appeal, Proper law of arbitration agreement, Singapore, Sweden

(Mihaela Maravela Law Office) and , / /Leave a comment

2020 saw important case law developments concerning the proper law of arbitration agreements, where the seat of the arbitration is in a different jurisdiction from the governing law of the main contract, particularly in the UK. However, various jurisdictions have adopted different approaches to this issue. It remains to be seen which jurisdictions will follow…

2020 In Review, AIAC, ASEAN, Diversity, Indonesia, Malaysia, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, SIAC, SIAC Congress, Singapore, Singapore Convention on Mediation, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, YSIAC

, and (Clifford Chance Asia)/ /Leave a comment

Today is the last day of 2020. For most of us, 2020 has been a particularly unusual year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prompted by necessity, arbitration in Southeast Asia adapted to the sea-change by: (i) using technology for virtual hearings, events and to build on existing diversity initiatives, (ii) developing domestic arbitration case law…

Amendment to International Arbitration Act, Arbitration, Confidentiality, Institutional Arbitration, Multiple parties, Singapore

(City University of Hong Kong) and (Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /1 Comment

Singapore has emerged as one of the leading international arbitration centers not only in Asia but also in the world. To keep this title, the Singapore Ministry of Law (“Ministry of Law”) played a major role by keeping track on international and commercial legislative developments, and, adapting and framing innovative legislations to promote international arbitration….

Costs in arbitral proceedings, Interest, KCAB, Korea, SIAC, Singapore

(Peter & Kim) and / /Leave a comment

The allocation of pre-award interest is a standard feature of most international arbitration proceedings and is often contested before a tribunal. The complexity is accentuated when a tribunal is unable to render a timely award for procedural reasons beyond its own control and beyond the parties’ control. The delay caused by the rescheduling of evidentiary…

Admissibility, Singapore, time-limits

(Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers)/ /Leave a comment

In BBA and others v BAZ and another appeal [2020] SGCA 53, the Singapore Court of Appeal (“SGCA”), in refusing to set aside an arbitral award, held that issues of time bar which arise from the expiry of statutory limitation periods go towards admissibility and not jurisdiction. Such issues cannot therefore be reviewed de novo…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Asia, China, Hong Kong, India, Intellectual Property, Paris Arbitration Week, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore, South Korea, Webinar

(Schellenberg Wittmer Pte Ltd)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

On 10 July 2020, a panel of arbitration practitioners discussed the topic of “Recent Developments and Key Arbitration Trends in Asia” as part of the 2020 Paris Arbitration Week. The panel discussion covered the distinctive features of and the latest developments in five different jurisdictions: Singapore, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and India. Hosted by…

Arbitration, Contingency Funding, Hong Kong, Singapore, Third party funding

(Shearman & Sterling LLP) and (Shearman & Sterling)/ /Leave a comment

While Hong Kong and Singapore legislated in 2017 to allow third party funding of arbitrations (“TPF”),1)In Hong Kong, the amendments to the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609) ultimately took effect in February 2019. both jurisdictions presently still bar “No-Win, No-Fee” and other outcome related fee arrangements between parties to arbitration and their lawyers. This is out-of-step…

Arbitration, Courts, Enforcement, interim relief, Philippines, Singapore, Virtual hearings

(Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

A special COVID-19-themed SIAC Philippines webinar took place on 18 June 2020. The webinar examined the availability of interim relief to parties to commercial disputes, both in international arbitration and through courts in the Philippines and Singapore, with the panel members sharing their observations on trends and changes since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic….