SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Chou Sean Yu, Wendy Lin, Monica Chong Wan Yee and Frank Oh Sheng Loong, WongPartnership LLP
For appeals on the tribunal’s ruling on jurisdiction, the court will undertake a de novo review (see 5.2 Circum- stances for Court Intervention ). For applications to set aside an arbitral award in an international arbitration, the courts have held that errors of law or fact made are final and binding on the parties, and may not be appealed or set aside except in the exhaustive grounds prescribed under the IAA and ML (see AJU v AJT [2011] 4 SLR 739 at [66]). Singapore has ratified the New York Convention, with the reciprocity reservation (whereby Singapore courts will enforce only awards under the New York Conven - tion that are made in another signatory state of the New York Convention). 12.2 Enforcement Procedure Both Singapore awards and foreign awards issued in New York Convention contracting states may, with permission of the court, be enforced in the same man - ner as a judgment or order of the court. Where per - mission of the court has been granted, judgment may be entered in the terms of the award (Section 19 IAA, Section 46 AA). Enforcement of Foreign Awards For foreign awards issued in a New York Convention contracting state, enforcement is a two-stage pro - cess. At the first stage, an application without notice is filed by the application for permission to enforce an award, supported by an affidavit exhibiting the arbitra - tion agreement (or a record of its content) and the duly authenticated original award (or duly certified copies of the above). Where the award is not in English, a duly certified translation in English must be provided. The affidavit must also state the name and the usual/ last known places of residence/business of the award creditor and award debtor, and, as the case may require, the extent to which the award has not been complied with at the date of the application (Order 48, Rule 6 (1) and (2) Rules of Court 2021 (ROC)). 12. Enforcement of an Award 12.1 New York Convention
Once the formal requirements above are met, the court would grant permission to enforce. This must then be served on the award debtor (Order 48, Rule 6 (3) ROC). At the second stage, enforcement may be refused only if the award debtor applies to set aside the order granting permission to enforce on any of the exhaus - tive grounds set out in Section 31 (2) and (4) of the IAA (for arbitral awards made pursuant to an arbitra - tion agreement in the territory of a New York Conven - tion contracting state other than Singapore). These grounds mirror the grounds in Article V New York Con - vention and Article 36 ML. An application to resist enforcement must be brought within 14 days after service of the order granting per - mission to enforce on the award debtor (or within such other period as the court may fix where the order is to be served out of Singapore). The award must not be enforced until after the expiry of that period or, if the award debtor applies within that period to set aside the order, until after the application is finally disposed of (Order 48, Rule 6 (5) ROC). Where an award has been set aside by the court at the seat, the court may refuse to enforce the award under Section 31 (2)(f) IAA. The courts have generally considered that, where an award has been set aside by a foreign seat court, the enforcement court may be reluctant to recognise or enforce the award, as the contemplated erga omnes effect of a successful appli - cation to set aside would generally lead to the conclu - sion that there is simply no award to enforce. Also, if the seat court has set aside the award, such decision may be given preclusive effect (see The Republic of India v Deutsche Telekom AG [2024] 1 SLR 56 at [77], [96]). Where the award is subject to ongoing setting-aside proceedings at the courts of its seat, under Section 31 (5) IAA, the Singapore court may, if it considers proper to do so, adjourn the enforcement proceed - ings, and on the application of the party seeking to enforce the award may order the other party to give suitable security.
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