SIArb Newsletters

December 2016

It has been an eventful year, full of surprises and sometimes heartache. In SIArb, we take stock amidst the uncertainties and anxieties of the world, and are thankful for what we have.

SIArb celebrated its 35th Anniversary with a lovely dinner at Aura, National Gallery on 27 October 2016. The organisers of this dinner led by Mr Chia Ho Choon and assisted as usual by our secretariat, Intellitrain put together a wonderful evening for us. We thank our Guest-of-Honour, Ms Indranee Rajah, Senior Counsel, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law & Ministry of Finance for her insights on the state of Singapore arbitration at the dinner.

I will share here some of the points that I made during my welcome address.

SIArb was founded in 1981 with 25 founder members. Its raison d'etre was the promotion of arbitration and the improvement of standards in this field. For 35 years, dedicated SIArb volunteers have selflessly devoted time and energy to educate and train arbitrators and other professionals engaged in arbitration.

In continuing this excellent tradition, we have reached out to other stakeholders, not only in Singapore but in the wider arbitration community. As many of you know, Singapore is one of the founding members of the Regional Arbitral Institutes Forum (RAIF). The RAIF Annual Conference is rotated amongst its 7 members.  This year, the Resolution Institute of Australia hosted the RAIF Conference in Sydney on 25 Nov 2016, during the recent Australia Arbitration Week.

SIArb is not only playing a regional role. From 25 founder members, it now has 872 members residing in USA, UK, Middle East, Asia and Australia. Our membership comprises over 28 nationalities from East to West.

We have our roots in Singapore and we understand Asian cultural nuances and practices. However, we are not simply a domestic organization which gazes at arbitration through myopic lenses. We are answerable to our diverse membership and to all who would come to Singapore to arbitrate. We are not the gatekeeper of arbitration, but we are an integral part of the machinery that makes Singapore worthy of its reputation as an arbitral seat of choice. We do not have a slogan, but if I may indulge in one, I would say this of SIArb: "ASIAN SENSIBILITIES, GLOBAL STANDARDS".

The Honourable the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon spoke about party-appointed arbitrators when he delivered the Herbert Smith Freehills - SMU Asian Arbitration Lecture on 24 November 2016. It sparked a spirited discussion on the policing of arbitrators.

SIArb fully agrees that ethics and standards are not peripheral aspects of international arbitration. Without these, disenchantment sets in and users will abandon the use of arbitration. International arbitration will perish, not flourish, if cynicism takes root.

This is why the first in the series of guidebooks that SIArb intends to launch is on the conduct of party representatives in arbitration. The working group for this guidebook comprises myself, our Immediate Past President Mohan Pillay, Rian Matthews and Adriana Uson from SIAC. Rian and Adriana have been doing much hard work distilling the core principles that should inform the behavior of arbitration practitioners, whichever jurisdiction they come from. We plan to circulate these draft principles for consultation and feedback in the coming months.

As mentioned by both Ms Indranee Rajah and I during the dinner, Singapore is introducing permissive legislation on Third Party Funding. The first reading of the Bill has already taken place in November 2016, with the 2nd reading expected in end January 2017. There is a need for a code of conduct for Third Party Funders too. This will be the second in the SIArb series of guidebooks. I will be working with another SIArb working group on this Code of Conduct for Third Party Funders.

Finally, I am happy to introduce to you the new Chairs of the various SIArb Committees:

I encourage all members to participate in the numerous projects and programmes of SIArb, whether as  Committee members or on ad hoc basis.

No doubt, many of you have put in long hours this year. Have a good rest during the year-end holidays and see you in 2017.