Public Consultation on the International Arbitration Act 1994 of Singapore

21 MAR 2025

Consultation Period: 21 March to 2 May 2025

  1. The Ministry of Law is seeking feedback on Singapore’s international arbitration regime and the International Arbitration Act 1994 (“IAA”).

Background

  1. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the IAA which came into force on 1 January 1995, pursuant to which Singapore adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (1985) (“Model Law”) to provide a legal framework for international arbitration proceedings.
  1. As part of our continual review to ensure that Singapore remains attractive as an arbitration forum, MinLaw commissioned the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy (“SIDRA”) to conduct a study on the international arbitration regime in Singapore and the IAA.
  1. To assist in our assessment of SIDRA’s study and feedback received from various stakeholders, we invite members of the public to provide views on SIDRA’s report, with a focus on the following eight (8) issues:

(a) Whether to confer the power to make cost orders for arbitral proceedings following a successful setting aside of an award on the court;

(b) Whether separate cost principles should be applied in respect of unsuccessful setting aside applications;

(c) Whether to introduce a leave requirement for appeals to the Court of Appeal arising from a High Court decision in a setting aside application;

(d) Whether the time limit to file a setting aside application should be reduced;

(e) Whether a right of appeal on questions of law is desirable;

(f) How to ascertain the governing law of the arbitration agreement;

(g) Whether the review of the tribunal’s jurisdiction should be conducted by way of an appeal or a rehearing; and

(h) Whether the summary disposal powers of arbitral tribunals should be set out in the IAA.

Public consultation paper

  1. The public consultation paper can be accessed below:

Invitation to Provide Feedback

  1. Please submit your feedback by 2 May 2025 via FormSG using this link:
  1. Your feedback is important to us. All comments received will be considered. However, we seek your understanding that we will not be able to individually acknowledge or address every comment. To maintain confidentiality, we will anonymise and aggregate the results of this engagement exercise in any public disclosure.
  1. Thank you.