Singapore Announces Amendments To Its International Arbitration Act

• Published date: 10 September 2020
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution
• Law Firm: Morrison & Foerster LLP
• Author: Mr Craig I. Celniker, Sarah J. Thomas, Daniel Steel and David Hambrick

On September 1, 2020, Singapore's Ministry of Law introduced an International Arbitration (Amendment) Bill (the "Bill") that proposes two changes to the International Arbitration Act ("IAA"), which governs the conduct of international arbitrations seated in Singapore. The first change is the addition of default processes and timeframes for appointing arbitrators in multi-party situations where the parties' agreement does not specify an appointment procedure. The second change would explicitly recognize the powers of an arbitral tribunal and Singapore's High Court to enforce confidentiality obligations. Singapore is a world class international commercial arbitration hub, and these changes aim to further enhance its legal framework for international arbitration.

BACKGROUND

The Bill is the culmination of a public consultation process that took place, and upon which we reported, last year. On June 26 2019, Singapore's Ministry of Law published a consultation paper seeking comments from the public on six proposals for amendments to the IAA. The proposed amendments included: (1) introduction of a default nomination procedure for arbitrators in multi-party arbitrations; (2) a requirement that arbitrators decide on jurisdiction at the preliminary stage if requested by all parties; (3) recognizing the power of an arbitral tribunal and Singapore's High Court to enforce confidentiality obligations (4) provision for parties to opt in to an appellate procedure on questions of law; (5) exclusion/limitation of set aside grounds under the Model Law and the IAA; and (6) empowerment of Singapore courts to order costs following set aside. We discussed these proposals in detail in our previous article. Ultimately, the Bill adopts two of the proposals made in the consultation paper.

NEW DEFAULT MODE OF APPOINTMENT IN ARBITRATIONS WITH THREE OR MORE PARTIES

The first amendment that the Bill proposes is the addition of a new section 9B of the IAA, setting out a default mode of appointment of arbitrators in multi-party situations where the parties' agreement does not specify the procedure applicable where there are more than two parties.

At present, section 9A of the IAA sets out a default procedure for the appointment of three arbitrators: Each party appoints one co-arbitrator, and the parties appoint the third arbitrator by agreement or, if no agreement is reached in 30 days, the appointing authority appoints the third arbitrator. Section 9A closely follows Article 11(3)(a)...