The Singapore international commercial court: The future of litigation?

• Main Author: YIP, Man
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: international commercial court; Singapore; dispute resolution; litigation; Commercial Law; Courts
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3075; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/5033/viewcontent/sg___PV.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The Singapore International Commercial Court (‘SICC’) was launched on 5 January 2015, at the Opening of Legal Year held at the Singapore Supreme Court. What prompted the creation of SICC? How is the SICC model of litigation different from litigation in the Singapore High Court? What is the SICC’s track record and what does it tell us about its future? This article seeks to answer these questions at greater depth than existing literature. Importantly, it examines these questions from the angle of reimagining access of justice for litigants embroiled in international commercial disputes. It argues that the SICC’s enduring contribution to improving access to justice is that it helps to change our frame of reference for international commercial litigation. Hybridisation, internationalisation, and party autonomy, the underpinning values of the SICC, are likely to be the values of the future of dispute resolution. International commercial dispute resolution frameworks – typically litigation frameworks – that unduly emphasise national boundaries and formalities need not and should not be the norm. Crucially, the SICC co-opts a refreshing public-private perspective to the resolution of international commercial disputes. It illuminates on the public interest element of the resolution of such disputes which have for some time fallen into the domain of international commercial arbitration; at the same time, it introduces greater scope for self-determination in international commercial litigation.