This year’s Virtual Congress held in conjunction with the Singapore Convention Week opened with a keynote speech by Mr K Shanmugam, SC, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law, Singapore, followed by a plenary session titled “How International Arbitration and International Commercial Courts play unique, important and complementary roles in International Dispute Resolution?”. The panellists were The Honourable Justice Judith Prakash, Justice of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Singapore, The Honourable Justice Beverley McLachlin PC, International Judge, Singapore International Commercial Court, The Honourable Mr Geoffrey Tao Li Ma, GMB, Former Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and Dr Michael Hwang, SC, Senior Counsel and Chartered Arbitrator, Michael Hwang Chambers LLC. The moderators of the plenary session were Professor Lawrence Boo, Member, SIAC Court of Arbitration; Independent Arbitrator, The Arbitration Chambers and Dr Michael Pryles AO PBM, Independent Arbitrator.
The other sessions comprised a panel session on “The Multi-Million Dollar Question: Will the pandemic and governments’ responses to it lead to a spike in investor-State arbitrations?”, a Lunchtime Roundtable on “Shifting Paradigms in International Arbitration: Arbitral Tribunals, Party-Nominated Arbitrators and Diversity” and a panel discussion on “The Role of Arbitral Institutions in controlling the Time and Costs of Arbitral Proceedings”. The day closed with Virtual Networking Drinks.
SIAC would like to thank all speakers, sponsors and supporting organisations for your generous support and contributions. We would also like to thank delegates and friends from the local and international arbitration communities for making the time and effort to participate in the Virtual Congress.
The various reports on the SIAC Virtual Congress 2021 can be accessed here.