INTRODUCTION
Citation | (2019) 31 SAcLJ 373 |
Published date | 01 December 2019 |
Date | 01 December 2019 |
1 It has been more than two decades since the modern mediation movement took hold in Singapore. In that time, mediation has taken root and branched out into various legal and social areas including, inter alia, community, family and commercial disputes.
2 In recent years, and in line with Singapore's aspirations of being a premier hub for legal services, there has also been an increasing focus on international commercial mediation. This manifested in 2014 with the Ministry of Law's Working Group Report on International Commercial Mediation, and the establishment of the Singapore International Mediation Centre (as a service provider of mediation services for international commercial disputes) and the Singapore International Mediation Institute (as a standards-setting and accreditation body for the mediation industry both domestically and internationally). The establishment of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy (as a think-tank and thought leader for mediation) and the passing of the Mediation Act 20171 continued this trend.
3 This year will be the next milestone with the signing of the Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation2 (“Singapore Convention”) in August 2019. This is significant because the Singapore Convention seeks to address one of the strongest criticisms of mediation, namely that mediated settlements are not easily enforceable internationally. Put simply, the Singapore Convention seeks to do for mediation what the Convention on the Recognition and
4 For these reasons this edition on international commercial mediation is a significant and timely one. Not only is it an acknowledgment of how...
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