We are pleased to announce that the annual Hong Kong Mediation Lecture will take place in hybrid format on Wednesday 9th November during Hong Kong Legal Week 2022. Co-organised with the Hong Kong Department of Justice, keynote speaker, The Honourable Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon, Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal will … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills has secured an important judgment from the Hong Kong Court of Appeal, C v D [2022] HKCA 729, regarding escalation clauses – contractual provisions which require negotiation or mediation before either party can begin formal proceedings. These clauses are intended to promote the efficient resolution of disputes, but often lead to costly … Read more

From 28 June 2021, Singapore will permit third-party funding of proceedings in the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), domestic arbitration proceedings and related mediation proceedings. Before this, Singapore permitted third-party funding for international arbitration proceedings and related court and mediation proceedings only (as reported in our blog post of January 2017). In making these changes, … Read more

Since Indonesia announced its intention to terminate and replace “all of its 67 bilateral investment treaties” (BITs) in 2014, the State has actively re-negotiated several BITs. Starting with some of its largest trading partners in the region, Indonesia signed new BITs with Singapore in 2018 and Australia in 2019. On 9 March 2021, the Agreement … Read more

Disruption, downturn and recovery tend to generate more disputes – and in Asia Pacific cross-jurisdiction operations and investments increase that risk. Our 2021 Guide to Dispute Resolution in Asia Pacific is your roadmap to potential problems in these fast-changing times, especially for those new to the region’s complex legal landscape. From the basics of each … Read more

Tomorrow marks an important day for dispute resolution users as the Singapore Mediation Convention comes into force, just over a year after its signing ceremony on 7 August 2019.   The UNCITRAL Working Group II’s aim to implement an international regime for the enforcement of mediated settlements broadly akin to the 1958 New York Convention for … Read more

From 12 September 2020, all international settlement agreements resulting from mediation will potentially be able to be enforced under the new Singapore Convention, regardless of where in the world the mediation took place. Article 14 of the Singapore Convention provides that it will enter into force six months after three signatory states have ratified it … Read more

Yesterday, on 25 February 2020, Singapore and Fiji became the first two countries to deposit at the United Nations Headquarters their instruments of ratification of the Singapore Convention, more formally known as the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation. Singapore and Fiji have taken an important step towards bringing the Singapore … Read more