ABOUT THIS SEMINAR
When a party resorts to litigation in breach of an arbitration agreement, the traditional remedy is to invite the Court to stay the litigation in favour of arbitration. In modern, complex international litigation, however, a stay may either be unavailable or ineffective. This can happen, for example, if the litigation is pending in a jurisdiction which is not New York Convention compliant or which is not the seat of the actual or prospective arbitration and which therefore has fewer and weaker policy reasons to compel the breaching party to arbitrate. In those situations, interesting issues arise as to the extent to which an arbitration agreement can be analysed as just another contractual obligation and as to the availability and effectiveness of the ordinary remedies for breach of contract in courts of competent jurisdiction.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This seminar is particularly useful for practitioners specialising in arbitration either as counsel or arbitrator and for all lawyers who desire an update on developments in this evolving area.
DESIRED OUTCOMES
By the end of this seminar, participants will:
- Understand the framework of remedies available to a party who wishes to enforce an arbitration agreement.
- Understand the extent to which an arbitration agreement can and cannot be analysed in the same way as other contractual obligations.
- Understand the peculiar conceptual and policy tensions presented by an arbitration agreement, particularly in the international context, which affect the availability and effectiveness of the traditional remedies available for breach of other contractual obligations.
Seminar Programme:
| 5.45pm – 6.00pm | Registration |
| 6.00pm – 6.10pm | An Introduction to Seminar
Wong Meng Meng SC, Founder-Consultant, WongPartnership LLP |
| 6.10pm – 6.50pm | The English and EU Perspective
Stuart Isaacs QC |
| 6.50pm – 7.30pm | The Singapore Perspective
Vinodh Coomaraswamy SC, Partner, Shook Lin & Bok LLP |
| 7.30pm – 7.45pm | Question and Answer Session
Wong Meng Meng SC, Consultant, WongPartnership LLP Stuart Isaacs QC Vinodh Coomaraswamy SC, Partner, Shook Lin & Bok LLP |
ABOUT THE CHAIRPERSON AND SPEAKERS
Wong Meng Meng SC, Founder-Consultant, WongPartnership LLP Wong Meng Meng, Senior Counsel founded WongPartnership LLP in 1992. While he retired from the Partnership in 2006, Meng Meng remains Counsultant with the firm. He is an accredited arbitrator with various professional and jurisdictional institutions. He now acts mainly as Arbitrator or Counsel in selected cases. Meng Meng was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1972 and was among the pioneer batch of Senior Counsel appointed in January 1997. He is an accredited Adjudicator under the Building & Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2004, and a member of the Competition Appeal Board set up under the Competition Act. He has served as a member of the Senate of the Academy of Law, the Military Court of Appeal, and the Advisory Committee of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.
Meng Meng has consistently been identified as one of the world’s leading lawyers in leading directories such as The International Who’s Who of Commercial Litigators, The Guide to the World’s Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration, AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers, amongst others. In Chambers Global – The Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers – 2005/2006, he was one of two Singapore lawyers ranked globally as the “Most in Demand Arbitrators”.
Stuart Isaacs QC Stuart has extensive experience of international commercial arbitration, both as counsel and as an arbitrator. Last year, he became the first London-based QC to open his own office in Singapore as an adjunct to his practice from his London Chambers. He splits his time between the two jurisdictions. The Chambers Asia Directory 2009 acknowledges his standing as a leading arbitrator and arbitration counsel in the region. He conducts commercial arbitrations under the Rules of SIAC, the ICC, UNCITRAL and the LCIA amongst others. He has also been involved in several ICSID disputes under bilateral investment treaties and many ad hoc arbitrations in a variety of fields. He is a Fellow of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) and a member of SIAC’s International Panel and of the arbitrators’ panel of the Mauritius International Chamber of Commerce. He has chaired or sat on tribunals deciding disputes under the laws of England, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Switzerland, New York and Nigeria and has conducted hearings in most of those countries and also in Dubai, Paris and Canada. Stuart is also an accredited ADRGroup mediator. He is a Principal Mediator for the Singapore Mediation Centre and has lectured extensively on the subject of mediation and alternative dispute resolution.
Vinodh Coomaraswamy SC, Partner, Shook Lin & Bok LLP Vinodh was admitted to practice in 1992 and appointed Senior Counsel in 2005. His areas of practice include international commercial arbitration, banking and finance-related litigation and complex domestic and cross-border insolvency matters. Vinodh is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and on the panel of arbitrators of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and of the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre. The Chambers Asia Directory (2008) Online Edition describes Vinodh as “an astute lawyer with a superb command of legal issues and great technical ability”. In the 2005/2006 edition of the Asia Pacific Legal 500, Vinodh is described as a “venerable figure” while in the 2006/2007 edition, he wins praise from clients who commend his “highest-quality support”, “enthusiasm and sense of responsibility”. In the 2008/2009 edition, he is commended for “sound advice”.