Singapore convention series: Why is there no ‘seat’ of mediation?

• Main Authors: CHONG, Shouyu, ALEXANDER, Nadja
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Dispute Resolution and Arbitration
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2893; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/4851/viewcontent/Singapore_Convention_Series__Why_is_there_no__seat__of_mediation____Kluwer_Mediation_Blog.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

For dispute resolution practitioners familiar with the concept of the seat of arbitration, it may come as a surprise that the new UN Convention on International Settlement Agreement Resulting from Mediation does not include provisions in relation to the ‘seat’ of mediation. Why, you may ask? The Convention includes no provisions on ‘seat’ simply because there has never been the need for a ‘seat’ of mediation when cross-border disputes are brought before a mediator, and this remains the case. In this blog post, we will develop a hypothetical scenario to explore the issues.