EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES EU-VIETNAM TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS

On 12 February 2020, the European Parliament (“EP“) gave its consent to the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (“EU-Vietnam FTA“) and the Investment Protection Agreement (“EU-Vietnam IPA“). The consent from the EP paves the way for approval of the two agreements by the EU Council of Ministers next month. In brief, the EU-Vietnam FTA focuses on … Read more

A Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

Key points The ministers responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) of 11 countries have announced that the core elements of a Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are agreed (CPTPP). While much of the original TPP looks to remain intact, 20 provisions of the TPP are suspended, in particular with respect to Investor–State Dispute … Read more

The European Court of Justice renders its opinion on the EU-Singapore free trade agreement: investment chapter is not within EU’s exclusive competence

On 16 May, 2017 the European Court of Justice (the Court) rendered its Opinion on the competence of the European Union to conclude the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore. The Opinion recognises exclusive EU competence over most of the agreement and largely settles a long-standing dispute between the Commission and the Member States on … Read more

Final Award published in the South China Sea arbitration

On 12 July 2016, the final Award in the arbitration between the Republic of the Philippines and The Peoples' Republic of China was issued by the Tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ("UNCLOS").  Much international media attention has been focused on the arbitration, which concerned a number of … Read more

Singapore signs the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements: a step in the right direction for the Singapore International Commercial Court

In our previous article The New Frontier, we discussed the launch of the Singapore International Commercial Court (“SICC”) and in particular we questioned whether issues of cross border enforceability might impact the effectiveness of the new SICC. Last week, Singapore took a first stride towards addressing the issue by becoming a signatory to the Hague … Read more

Developments in resolving cross-border disputes

With the increase of global commerce, it also becomes increasingly important to provide for effective and quick dispute resolution mechanisms across state borders. A number of developments in international law recognise this trend and seek to address it. These developments include: The inclusion of Investor-State Dispute Resolution mechanisms in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the … Read more