by MP for Aljunied GRC, Pritam Singh
Mr Speaker, before I begin, I declare that I am a practice trainee at an international arbitration and construction practice in a local firm.
Sir, the changes proposed to the International Arbitration Act by this Bill are likely to buttress Singapore’s position as an international arbitration hub. Specifically, the amendment of the International Arbitration Act to accommodate aspects of the 2006 amendments to the Model Law, which has moved away from the requirement that an arbitration agreement must be in writing – as proposed in the First Schedule of the Bill – a helpful indicator to the market that Singapore intends to keep its arbitration regime in line with the arbitral norms around the world. The careful and calibrated inclusion of certain aspects of the 2006 Model Law amendments to our international arbitration regime bodes well in Singapore’s drive to maintain its premier Asian arbitration hub status.
A second amendment, the judicial review of negative jurisdictional rulings has provoked a little more uncertainty among some segments of the arbitration community, especially since it opens the curial prospect of reversing an arbitral tribunal’s ruling that it has no jurisdiction to hear a dispute. In this regard, Singapore is moving ahead even though there is no international consensus with regard to erroneous negative jurisdictional rulings by an arbitral tribunal. However, allowing the judicial review of negative jurisdictional rulings is persuasive for a variety of reasons, many of which were laid out in paragraph 12 of the Report of the “Law Reform Committee on the Right to Judicial Review of Negative Jurisdictional Rulings” published in January 2011.
In this regard, the Law Ministry’s willingness to move ahead of the Model Law when the situation deems it appropriate also speaks well for the continued and organic development of the international arbitration space in Singapore, and it should continue to attract the confidence of the international legal community. I also note the Ministry’s willingness to adopt provisions from other jurisdictions, specifically the tribunal’s powers to award interest, with s 20 the Bill based on s 79 of the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance 2010 which came into force last year.
To conclude Mr Speaker, I note in the public consultation brief for this Bill that the Ministry is assessing and requesting for additional inputs on the waiver of a right to set aside an award and third party funding. This commitment to constant review and revision of our arbitral laws is likely to have a positive effect on the development of international arbitration in Singapore in the years to come. And this is timely as we are already seeing other seats of arbitration in the region slowly but surely stepping up their efforts to attract international parties and clients to their shores.
I support the amendments in the proposed Bill.