On August 7, India’s High Commissioner to Singapore, Jawed Ashraf, signed the United Nations’ Convention on International Settlement Agreements. Forty-six countries signed this treaty which is also known as the Singapore Convention on Mediation, since the island nation took the lead in drafting it.
Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam highlighted the participation by the world’s three largest economies: U.S.A., India, and China. “India has taken a strong step in dispute resolution – it has changed its rules of court,” Shanmugam noted, citing the growing success of the Mumbai Arbitration Center.
The Singapore Convention:
- comes into force six months from the date a sovereign state confirms its ratification.
- will improve cross-border trade by making it easier to enforce the outcomes of mediated settlement agreements, and save both cost and time for the parties.
- can be resorted to only in case of an international commercial dispute, and specifically excludes disputes arising from personal, family, inheritance or employment matters.
- does not apply to settlement agreements that have been approved by a court or concluded in the course of court proceedings, and which are otherwise enforceable as a judgment.
- does not include settlement agreements that have been recorded and are enforceable as an arbitral award.
