SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Chou Sean Yu, Wendy Lin, Monica Chong Wan Yee and Frank Oh Sheng Loong, WongPartnership LLP
by the other party. Although it is typical for tribunals to apply the principle that costs follow the event as a starting point, they are likely to take into account all relevant circumstances, including the conduct of the parties during the proceedings.
circumstances for the court to determine the ques - tion. An application for permission to appeal must iden - tify the question of law to be determined and state the grounds on which it is alleged that permission to appeal should be granted (Section 49 (6) AA). Apart from the aforementioned appeal procedure for arbitrations under the AA, parties to arbitrations under the IAA and AA may also seek to apply to the court to set aside the arbitral award on the grounds set out in the IAA and ML, as well as the AA (as applicable). Under Article 34 (1) and (2) ML and Section 24 IAA, an award may be set aside by the court in the following instances. • If the applicant furnishes proof that: (a) a party to the arbitration agreement was under some incapacity, or said agreement is not valid under the law to which the parties have sub - jected it or, failing any indication thereon, under Singapore law; (b) the applicant was not given proper notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the arbi - tral proceedings, or was otherwise unable to present their case; (c) the award deals with a dispute not contem - plated by or not falling within the terms of the submission to arbitration, or contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the submis - sion to arbitration, provided that, if the deci - sions on matters submitted to arbitration can be separated from those not so submitted, only that part of the award which contains decisions on matters not submitted to arbitration may be set aside; or (d) the composition of the tribunal or the arbitral procedure was not in accordance with the agreement of the parties, unless such agree - ment was in conflict with a provision of the IAA and/or ML from which the parties cannot derogate, or, failing such agreement, was not in accordance with the IAA and/or ML. • If the court finds that: (a) the subject matter of the dispute is not capable of settlement by arbitration under the laws of Singapore;
11. Review of an Award 11.1 Grounds for Appeal
Parties to arbitrations falling under the ambit of the IAA are not entitled to appeal an arbitral award; a mecha - nism for appeal exists only for arbitrations under the AA. Under Section 49 AA, parties may appeal to the court only on a question of law arising out of an award made in the proceedings. A “question of law” must be a finding of law disputed by the parties, and a mere erroneous application of the law does not entitle an aggrieved party to appeal (see Northern Elevator Man- ufacturing Sdn Bhd v United Engineers ( Singapore ) Pte Ltd [2004] 2 SLR(R) 494 at [17]–[19]). Appeals must be brought within 28 days of the date of the award. The appellant must first exhaust any available arbitral process of appeal or review and any available recourse for the correction/interpretation of the award (Section 50 (2) and (3) AA). An appeal under the AA may not be brought unless all other parties to the proceedings have given their consent, or the court’s permission has been obtained (Section 49 (3) AA). Under Section 49 (5) AA, the court will only grant permission to appeal if satisfied that all the following conditions are satisfied. • The determination of the question will substantially affect the rights of one or more of the parties. • The question is one that the tribunal was asked to determine. • On the basis of the findings of fact in the award: (a) the tribunal’s decision on the question is obvi - ously wrong; or (b) the question is one of general public impor - tance and the tribunal’s decision is at least open to serious doubt. • Despite the agreement of the parties to resolve the matter by arbitration, it is just and proper in all the
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