SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Chou Sean Yu, Wendy Lin, Monica Chong Wan Yee and Frank Oh Sheng Loong, WongPartnership LLP
2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
1.3 Arbitration Institutions The SIAC is the most popular arbitral institution in Sin - gapore, with favoured alternatives including the ICC (which has had an office in Singapore since 2018) and the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (for maritime-related disputes). The Permanent Court of Arbitration has also established an office in Singapore since 2017, further augmenting Singapore’s position as an international hub for investment dispute reso - lution. No new arbitral institutions have been estab - lished in Singapore in the last 12 months. 1.4 National Courts There is no specific court in Singapore designated to hear arbitration-related disputes. However, matters relating to arbitration will be assigned to judges in the Companies, Insolvency, Equity and Trust, and Arbitra - tion docket of the High Court. Parties may also agree to submit their arbitration- related disputes to the Singapore International Com - mercial Court (SICC), a division of the General Division of the High Court designed to deal with transnational commercial disputes. Where proceedings are com - menced in the General Division of the High Court, counsel may be directed to take instructions on the potential transfer of such proceedings to the SICC where: • none of the parties is from Singapore (or, if there are three or more parties, not more than one is from Singapore); and • the value of the subject matter in the underlying dispute/award (whichever is less) is at least SGD10 million. Notable arbitration-related proceedings that have recently been heard before the SICC include Korea v Mason , Deutsche Telekom AG v The Republic of India [2024] 3 SLR 1, Hulley Enterprises Ltd and Others v The Russian Federation [2025] SGHC(I) 19 and DNZ v DOA and another [2026] SGHC(I) 1.
The International Arbitration Act 1994 (IAA) governs international arbitration in Singapore. A separate piece of legislation, the Arbitration Act 2001 (AA) applies to any arbitration where the place of arbitration is Singa - pore and Part II of the IAA does not apply – typically, “domestic” arbitrations. Parties may select the IAA or AA by agreement. The IAA gives the UNCITRAL Model Law of 1985 (hereinafter, the ML) the force of law in Singapore, with certain modifications including (among others) the following. • Chapter VIII of the ML (which addresses enforce - ment of arbitral awards) is excluded, to avoid inconsistency with Part 3 of the IAA, which applies to enforcement of awards under the 1958 Conven - tion on the Recognition and Enforcement of For - eign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”). • Article 16 (3) ML prescribes that, if the tribunal rules as a preliminary question that it has jurisdic - tion, a party may request the relevant court to decide the matter (and that such decision shall be subject to no appeal). Section 10 (3) IAA expands on this to allow for applications to be made to the High Court to decide the matter where the tribunal rules at any stage of the proceedings that it does not have jurisdiction. Section 10 (4) IAA further provides for the possibility of appeals against juris - dictional rulings of the High Court, albeit only with permission of the appellate court. • The IAA introduces provisions relating to the appointment of conciliators. • Section 24 IAA introduces two further grounds (in addition to the grounds in Article 34 (2) ML) where an arbitral award may be set aside, namely where the making of the award was induced or affected by fraud or corruption, or where a breach of the rules of natural justice occurred in connection with the making of the award by which the rights of any party have been prejudiced. The AA was enacted to align the domestic arbitration regime with the ML, but is not based on the ML and does not give the ML the force of law.
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