2019 witnessed thrilling developments in Singapore’s dispute resolution landscape including, in August, the signing of the Singapore Convention of Mediation, and the consultation paper issued by the Ministry of Law proposing still further amendments to the current arbitration regime in Singapore. Certain proposals made in the latter, said to give wider options to parties in dispute, attracted diverse views.

Meanwhile, Singapore courts have continued to see a steady stream of matters arising from or relating to arbitration. Of much interest is the Court of Appeal’s decision in Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Ltd v Avant Garde Maritime Services (Pte) Ltd [2019] SGCA 33 (“Rakna”), which set aside the award for want of jurisdiction, reversing the High Court’s earlier ruling that a failure to appeal against a decision on a preliminary issue of jurisdiction under Art 16 Model Law (“MAL”) and/or under Section 10 of the International Arbitration Act (“IAA”) prevents a party from seeking to rely on any lack of jurisdiction to sustain setting aside the award under Art 34(2)(a) (iii) of the MAL. In ST Group Co Ltd and others v Sanum Investments Limited and another appeal [2019] SGCA 65 (“Sanum”), the Court of Appeal also refused to enforce an award made in a “wrong seat”. Other notable decisions deserving attention include Sun Travels & Tours Pvt Ltd v Hilton International Manage (Maldives) Pvt Ltd [2019] SGCA 10, which addresses the question as to how courts would consider anti-enforcement injunctions as against anti-suit injunctions. These and many other decisions of the High Court, including the first two decisions arising from international arbitration cases referred to the Singapore International Commercial Court following its expanded jurisdiction, will be discussed at this seminar. 

 

Webinar participants will be able to watch and listen to (via computer audio, recommended for security reasons, or telephone line) the video presentation and Q&A discussion on their screens, receive a PDF copy of the presentation slides, as well as participate in the Q&A discussion by sending in your questions to the moderator via text using the built-in Q&A function.