SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Chou Sean Yu, Wendy Lin, Monica Chong Wan Yee and Frank Oh Sheng Loong, WongPartnership LLP
13. Miscellaneous 13.1 Class Action or Group Arbitration Singapore’s laws do not provide any mechanism or regime for class action or group arbitration in general. 13.2 Ethical Codes In relation to counsel, the PCR imposes certain ethi - cal and professional duties on Singapore lawyers and registered foreign lawyers in Singapore. In relation to arbitrators, various institutions have pub - lished codes/guidelines, including: • the Code of Ethics for Arbitrators published by the SIAC; • the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Code of Pro - fessional and Ethical Conduct for Members by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; and • the Guidelines on Party-Representative Ethics by the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. 13.3 Third-Party Funding There are rules and restrictions in place on third-party funders. These include the Civil Law Act (CLA), the Civil Law (Third-Party Funding) Regulations (CLTPFR) and the PCR. Under Section 5B CLA and Reg 4 CLTPFR, con - tracts providing for third-party funding in relation to prescribed dispute resolution proceedings (which include, among others, arbitration proceedings and court proceedings connected with arbitration pro - ceedings) are not contrary to public policy or other - wise illegal, provided that the third-party funder satis - fies the following criteria: • the funder carries on the principal business of the funding of the costs of dispute resolution proceed - ings to which it is not a party; and • the funder has a paid-up share capital of not less than SGD5 million (or equivalent in foreign cur - rency), or the equivalent in managed assets. Under Rule 49A PCR, counsel must disclose the exist - ence of any third-party funding arrangement, as well as the identity and address of the funder, to the court or tribunal and all other parties in the proceedings.
Enforcement of Singapore Awards The procedure for enforcement of Singapore awards under the IAA and AA follows a similar two-stage pro - cess. While the grounds for refusal of enforcement of a Singapore award are not set out in the IAA or AA, it is generally accepted that the same grounds which apply to refusal of enforcement of foreign awards also apply to Singapore awards (see EFG Bank AG, Sin- gapore Branch v Surewin Worldwide Ltd and Others [2022] 5 SLR 915 at [76]). Sovereign Immunity Sovereign immunity is not, by itself, a ground for resist - ing enforcement of an award against a state in Singa - pore. Where a state has agreed in writing to submit a dispute to arbitration, Section 11 of the State Immu - nity Act 1979 provides that the state is not immune as regards proceedings in the Singapore courts relating to the arbitration, subject to any contrary provision in the arbitration agreement (although this does not apply to any arbitration agreement between states). In a recent notable decision ( Hulley Enterprises Ltd and Others v The Russian Federation [2025] SGHC(I) 19), the SICC held that the principle of transnational issue estoppel applied to prevent a party from raising argu - ments relating to sovereign immunity in enforcement proceedings in Singapore which had already been The courts will generally enforce arbitration awards, unless one of the exhaustive grounds for challenge clearly exists. As indicated previously, one of the grounds for refusal of enforcement is where it would be contrary to the public policy of Singapore. The Singapore courts have indicated that the scope of the public policy ground is to be narrowly con - strued, and this ground would only operate such that enforcement would be refused in instances where the upholding of the arbitral award would “shock the con - science”, is “clearly injurious to the public good”, is “wholly offensive to the ordinary, reasonable and fully informed member of the public” or “where it violates the forum’s most basic notion of morality and justice” (see DOI v DOJ and Others and Another Matter [2025] SGHC(I) 15 at [162]). addressed by the court of the seat. 12.3 Approach of the Courts
725 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook