Two years after the signing of the Singapore Convention on Mediation, the Law Ministry recently held the Singapore Convention Week 2021, which brought together leaders from the legal, business and government sectors in the international dispute resolution scene.
The conference themed ‘A World In Transition’ featured a number of experts from across the globe sharing their views on the future of mediation and dispute resolution in general.
Among those dignitaries was Singapore Minister for Law and Home Affairs, K Shanmugam. In this interview with Bar & Bench, the Senior Counsel speaks on the success of the Singapore Convention, how the COVID-19 pandemic had changed things, and more.
“In particular, the Convention enables parties to a commercial dispute to easily enforce and invoke mediated settlement agreements across borders and plugs the gap in international mediation. With greater assurance that mediation can be relied on to settle cross-border commercial disputes, we expect that parties would be more inclined to opt for mediation as a first course of dispute settlement.”
“We see an increase in the use of mediation. For example, the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) has almost doubled the number of mediation filings from 2019 to 2020. There is also growing interest in mediation in India and elsewhere. The inaugural India-Singapore Mediation Summit, organised by SIMC, CAMP Arbitration and Mediation Practice, and Mediation Mantras in July 2021, saw over 6,500 live viewers from more than 60 countries including India, Singapore, Malaysia, US, UK and Australia.”
Read more at the Bar and Bench.