Singapore is widely known as a leading centre on the map of international mediation. On 7 August 2019, a signing ceremony for the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, nowadays commonly known as the Singapore Convention, was held there. On 23 February 2024, Singapore will host the 25th International Bar Association…

On 29 January 2021, the European Union and Canada adopted four decisions providing for specific rules regarding the Investment Court System (“ICS”) agreed in the 2016 EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (“CETA”). One of them includes the Rules for Mediation. See: general facts about CETA. The CETA was signed on 30 October 2016, and…

On this day, the Singapore Convention on Mediation comes into force. You can view the ratification ceremony here.. At the time of writing, there are 53 State Parties to the Convention, six of which have ratified it (Singapore, Fiji, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Belarus and Ecuador). Qatar was the third signatory State Party to deposit its…

In recent years, mediation has been actively discussed for the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime, particularly as a means of reducing costs and delays. This interest is one reaction to growing discontent about the option of investor-state arbitration (ISA) typically offered by host states in international investment treaties, to make substantive commitments (like non-discrimination) more…

The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“the New York Convention”) makes a huge contribution to the success of international arbitration by providing tools for global enforcement of arbitral awards. To that end, international mediation has been underused because of the lack of necessary international enforcement mechanisms of mediated settlement agreements….

Update: As this post was published, the Singapore Convention Bill was passed into law. In previous blog entries, we have outlined the provisions of the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (also known as the Singapore Convention on Mediation), reported on its signing ceremony and observed that more than 50 States…

“Does the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (“Singapore Convention”) apply to investor-state disputes?” This intriguing question was deliberated recently at George Washington University Law School by a star-studded panel comprising of the Hon’ble Judge Charles N. Brower (Twenty Essex Street Chambers, London), Ms. Frauke Nitschke (Legal Counsel, ICSID) and Mr….

The success of international arbitration, among others, is owed to the New York Convention, which provided tools for global enforcement of arbitral awards. To that end, international mediation has been underused often because of the lack of necessary international enforcement mechanisms of mediated settlement agreements. The Singapore Convention on Enforcement of Mediated Settlement Agreements (Singapore…

The forthcoming Singapore Mediation Convention aims at ensuring the international “direct” enforcement of Mediated Settlement Agreements (“MSAs”) worldwide (see the post by Nadja Alexander, on a short description of the Convention). This means that an MSA shall be enforced directly in any Singapore Mediation Convention contracting state, without a prior review or granting of enforcing…

This post, the second of a two-part series, examines further potential problems of implementing the Singapore Mediation Convention in China and proposes corresponding solutions. The first post in this series considered three potential problems and this second post examines four further potential problems. 4. The SPC should establish an annual reporting system for cases pertaining…