SAL Journal (2014) 26 SAcLJ Special Issue (Conflict of Laws in Arbitration)

This special issue focuses on the following topics:

(a) an international perspective on the choice of law governing the substantive validity of international arbitration agreements;

(b) Swiss and English arbitration laws, the material differences, as well as differences in interpretation;

(c) the law applicable to the issue of arbitrability;

(d) meaning, scope and sources of procedural law and lex arbitri; rights of parties to opt out and create their own procedural framework, limits on that freedom; and the process for determining the seat of arbitration;

(e) extent to which voie indirecte and voie directe converge in practice;

(f) state incapacity and sovereign immunity in international arbitration in, eg, Singapore, the US and the UK, and before international tribunals;

(g) the different approaches adopted by investment treaty tribunals when determining the law applicable to the dispute and the significance of different treaty structures;

(h) Singapore perspective on the interaction and impact of cross-border insolvencies on arbitration proceedings;

(i) the origins of the Henderson rule and its operation in practice where parties have participated in a prior arbitration and then seek to commence fresh proceedings raising matters that could and should have been brought in the earlier arbitration; and

(j) a survey on how Singapore courts have addressed the choice of law issues that arise in the context of setting-aside challenges to an award, challenges to the enforcement of an award, and in determining the applicable law in the arbitration.