Newsletters

March 2017

The Singapore Institute of Arbitrators greeted 2017 with a flurry of activities.

SIArb continues to be blessed with the generosity of leading arbitrators sharing their knowledge through the SIArb platform. In a January 2017 seminar moderated by Mr Francis Goh, Mr David Bateson and Ms Marion Smith QC teased the audience with questions on the continuing viability of arbitration in the seminar, "Is the End of the Arbitration World Coming in 2017?" I trust it is not, well at least not this year. That was followed by a stimulated "Tylney Hall-styled” session presented by Dr Michael Hwang, SC and Prof Lawrence Boo in February 2017, where the two Singapore lights exchanged views on a range of prickly arbitration issues.

SIArb is one of the key organisations working on the new Third Party Funding framework in Singapore. Legislation governing third party funding is supplemented by guidelines or practice notes issued by industry stakeholders. Thus, SIArb has released its draft Guidelines for Third Party Funders for public consultation. The Law Society is issuing its Practice Note for Practitioners and SIAC has its Practice Note for Arbitrators. A well-attended seminar on Third Party Funding to discuss the proposed best practices in March 2017 generated a lively debate and valuable feedback from the participants. I moderated the session which was led by Dinesh Dhillon on behalf of SIArb, Mr Thio Shen Yi, SC for the Law Society and Ms Delphine Ho, the Registrar of SIAC.

In March 2017, I was invited in my capacity as President of SIArb to deliver a talk to the Japan Association of Arbitrators on the training of arbitrators and the promotion of arbitration practices. The talk was followed by an enjoyable panel discussion where we exchanged Singapore and Japanese viewpoints on arbitration. The full capacity hall with very senior arbitrators in attendance demonstrates the level of interest in the subject and augurs well for the progress of arbitration in Japan.

The same month, a group of trainers led by Mr Naresh Mahtani conducted training for delegates from the Institute of Modern Arbitration in Moscow. We thank Mr Kevin Nash, Deputy Registrar of SIAC, for helping us to conduct the training. The delegates were very knowledgeable and the panel discussions following each segment were very useful.

It is very encouraging to its Council and members that SIArb is not just a training institute, but a think -tank that is consulted on law and policy. The interaction that SIArb is fostering with the wider arbitration community beyond Singapore gives it useful perspectives. We will work to share and disseminate these perspectives to our members, wherever you are based.

In each issue of our newsletter, we interview an SIArb member to get their views on the alternative dispute resolution scene in Singapore,  and to obtain some insight into what makes them tick.

In this issue, we interview PROF TAN CHENG HAN SC, former Dean of Law at the National University of Singapore.

How  would  you  describe  yourself  in  three  words?
I can only think of one-boring

How did you first get involved in arbitration work?
When I was appointed to a panel in the early 2000s.

In  the  course  of  your  work,  do  you  notice  a  trend  in  clients preferring arbitration over litigation as a form of  dispute resolution?
Absolutely, there is a discernible trend driven in no small part by the number of cross-border transactions and the confidentiality of proceedings.

What  is  the  most  memorable  arbitration  or  arbitration-related matter that you were involved in, and why?
It was a joint venture that had gone sour, and it was memorable because the deal revealed the depth of corruption at that time in a country in Asia.

What advice do you have for a young fellow practitioner interested in arbitration work?
You have to put in the hours, there is no substitute. Reputation is everything.

What are the challenges you think arbitration practitioners will face in the upcoming years? 
Although arbitration is doing well, it can be time consuming and expensive. Thus its value proposition will increasingly be questioned.

With  the  establishment  of  the  Singapore  International Mediation Centre and the introduction of the SIAC-SIMC Arb-Med-Arb  Protocol,  do  you  see  mediation  as  now  having a bigger role to play in assisting parties to resolve their disputes? 
Yes, I do and this is a good thing.

Who  is  the  person(s)  who  has  had  the  greatest  impact and/or influence on your career?
My father because he was a lawyer and that no doubt made me sensitive to a career in the law, and Dean (later Justice) Tan Lee Meng who asked me in my final year to consider academia, a prospect I had not previously entertained as I was an indifferent student in my school years.

If you weren’t in your current profession, what profession would you be in?
Perhaps a historian, or law enforcement/regulation.

What’s your guilty pleasure? 
Almost anything sweet.

What is one talent that not many people know you have? 
I would like to know too! I do hold a Black Belt Third Dan in Tae Kwon-do but I suspect the examiners are very kind to mature practitioners.

Fill in the blank: “Arbitration is to dispute resolution as  _______” 
"water is to snow ”.  Apologies, I had to endure unseasonably cold weather earlier this year in Europe and this is the only thing that comes to mind.

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.