There's growing interest in mediation in India: Singapore law minister

'Singapore and India are also collaborating closely in mediation', said Shanmugam

Singapore has been at the forefront of championing mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for international commercial disputes through the Singapore Convention on Mediation (SCM). Just as the ‘New York Convention’ provides the framework and mechanism for operation of international arbitration proceedings and their execution across different jurisdictions, the SCM represents the United Nations framework for dispute resolution through mediation. It has come into effect from September 2020, and till now 55 countries, including India, have signed - among them seven have also ratified - the Convention. However, businesses globally are still to warm up to this nascent alternative dispute settlement mechanism, regarded as more time and cost efficient than traditional litigation and the arbitration process. 

K Shanmugam, who has been Singapore’s law minister since 2008, and is regarded as one of the finest legal minds of the country, has been espousing the cause for using mediation to address international commercial disputes. In a wide-ranging interaction over email with Sudipto Dey soon after hosting the Singapore Convention Week earlier this month, Shanmugam, who also heads the Ministry of Home Affairs, shares his views on a host of issues, including how technology has given a spur to use of mediation, the growing interest among Indian legal fraternity in mediation, and the implications of the legal developments in the Future Group-Amazon battle. Edited excerpts:

The high-profile Future-Amazon arbitration battle has put the spotlight on Singapore as a destination for global arbitration. The Indian courts too have given due recognition to the Emergency Arbitrator Award by Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) under Indian arbitration laws. Do you expect this case to have wider ramifications for international dispute resolution in this region?

The Supreme Court of India upholding the Emergency Arbitrator (EA) Award by the SIAC, under SIAC rules, is a welcome development. It upholds the fundamental principle of party autonomy in arbitration and gives parties greater confidence in seeking expeditious interim relief via arbitration.

More broadly, this shows how international approaches towards dispute resolution offer parties greater autonomy and influence over their own outcomes. This does not apply only to arbitration, but also mediation, particularly given the certainty offered by the enforcement framework for cross-border commercial disputes under the Singapore Convention on Mediation.

The pandemic-induced lockdown has given a fillip to online dispute resolution. How do you see this impacting destination-based arbitral institutions and centres?

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption and use of technology in the context of international dispute resolution. With stricter border controls and travel restrictions, parties can no longer freely travel and meet in a single location to resolve their disputes. This will have some impact on the number of physical hearings.

Maxwell Chambers, our hearing centre, has pivoted to offering parties integrated and seamless virtual and hybrid alternative dispute resolution (ADR) hearing services involving a mix of online and in-person hearings depending on the needs of the parties. It has collaborated with other hearing centres to facilitate ADR hearings for international parties who may be located in different jurisdictions.

We have seen an increase in the uptake of such virtual and hybrid ADR hearing services.

Given the experience of virtual court hearings over the last 15 months or so, do you see governments, courts and mediation communities working more closely with help of technology?

Definitely. Technology has increased the opportunities for governments, courts and the dispute resolution community to interact and exchange thoughts and ideas. We have seen this in Singapore, most recently when we held the Singapore Convention Week 2021 in a hybrid, but mostly virtual format.

Together with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), we also co-organised the inaugural UNCITRAL Academy which saw over 1,000 participants from over 90 countries discuss the future of alternative dispute resolution. This also included a series of capacity-building workshops, conducted online, on the use and benefits of mediation and the Singapore Convention on Mediation for government and industry representatives from around the world.

The recent India-Singapore Mediation Summit on July 17, 2021 was also held virtually. The Summit saw high-level participation from both countries, such as the Chief Justices of both countries.

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) offers practical, skills-based arbitration training programmes under the SIAC Academy, to nurture and develop future generations of international arbitration experts. Despite the travel restrictions, technology has allowed the training programmes to continue in the form of online courses.

Such events illustrate how technology can not only bridge borders, but arguably foster even closer collaboration and co-operation than before the pandemic.

As technology advances, it may also spur the use of mediation and enable greater co-operation between the government, courts and mediation communities. This can already be seen in India-Singapore cross-border initiatives, such as the SIMC-CAMP joint COVID-19 protocol, which facilitates the resolution of disputes via mediation along the India-Singapore business corridor. Under the protocol, co-mediators from India and Singapore assist parties to overcome any physical, cultural and jurisdictional barriers to settlement, and mediations are conducted online or in hybrid formats.

The GIFT City at Gandhinagar, India's first International Financial Services Centre, is being touted as an offshore alternative to Singapore, Hong Kong, and London. Do you see areas for collaboration?

There are certainly areas where both countries can collaborate, one being dispute resolution, given our strong trade and financial links. SIAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GIFT City in 2016 and set up a representative office there in August 2017.

Singapore and India are also collaborating closely in mediation. India has signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation and there has been growing interest in mediation as a viable form of alternative dispute resolution domestically. This interest can be seen by the high participation at the inaugural India-Singapore Mediation Summit in July 2021. The event had seen over 6,500 live viewers from more than 60 countries, including India, Singapore, Malaysia, US, UK and Australia.

Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC has) also been conducting specialist mediator training workshops, to familiarise senior business leaders, judges, lawyers, general counsel and other senior professionals with the benefits and use of mediation.