Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Deferred Prosecution Agreements In Singapore?, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 15 January 2018, Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam said at a dialogue organised by the Law Society that deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) could be introduced in Singapore as part of proposed changes to the criminal justice system. DPAs are agreements by the prosecutor to suspend prosecution of a corporate entity if it complies with specific conditions. If the corporation fails to comply with the conditions, the prosecution may resume. This post examines the case for and against DPAs and explores the issues they may present in the Singapore context.

Independence And Impartiality Of Arbitrators: A Rule Of Law Analysis, Stefanie Schacherer

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) through arbitration remains in a state of legitimacy crisis and discussions on reform are ongoing. Much of the criticism is focussed on who is deciding investment dispute cases. Investment arbitrators have been called “private judges” who operate in secrecy, are biased in favour of big multinational companies and have no regard for conflicts of interest. The course of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United States, highlighted to what extent ISDS through arbitration is perceived as unfair and biased (at least in Europe). As a reaction …

Celebrating Mundane Conflict, Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

This Article interrogates the dominant conception of conflict and challenges the narrative of conflict as hard, difficult and painful to engage. The Article reveals two primary framing errors that cause one to misperceive how ubiquitous and ordinary is conflict. The first error is to misperceive conflict as categorical — something either is a conflict or it is not. People make that error as a way of trying to avoid conflict. People falsely hope that there might be a category of “not conflict,” like disagreements, that will be easier to navigate. The second error is to misperceive the world and individuals …

Achieving Substantive Justice In Mediation Through Procedural Justice: An Illusory Or Realizable Goal?, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation has been plagued with a problem of legitimacy. Genn stated that mediation “does not contribute to substantive justice because mediation requires the parties to relinquish ideas of legal rights during mediation and focus, instead, on problem-solving”. Mediation appears to be all about procedural justice, a concept that is associated with perceptions of fair treatment. And procedural justice does not seem to have any discernible link with substantive justice, in terms of giving effect to well-accepted norms.This blog entry is drawn from a paper that was presented at the Australasian Dispute Resolution Research Network 6th Annual Roundtable and the LSAANZ …

Defining The Limits To Abuse Of Process: Lim Geok Lin Andy V Yap Jin Meng Bryan, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The abuse of process jurisdiction, which forms part of the doctrine of res judicata, is meant to uphold finality of litigation and prevent abusive litigation. While the jurisdiction has been applied to the original parties of earlier court proceedings, it could also prevent a person who was not part of earlier court proceedings from litigating his claim. In such circumstances, the abuse of process doctrine has to be cognisant of the commercial realities and motivations driving choices to advance separate rather than consolidated proceedings, while also protecting litigants from repeated litigation. A recent Singapore Court of Appeal decision imposed constraints …

Cross-Examination In International Arbitration: A Clash Among Common Law Traditions, Robert H. Smit

Faculty Scholarship

Cross-examination, like it or not, has become a regular feature of international arbitration. As with other procedural cross-roads converging upon international arbitration from different legal traditions, cross-examination invites controversy and debate. This tends to focus on the procedural differences between civil-law “inquisitorial” and common-law “adversarial” systems, and how they inform the (un)desirability of cross-examination, or the need to modify it, in international arbitration. Less explored is how the practice of cross-examination differs in different common-law jurisdictions, including between prominent arbitral seats in the United States and England, Hong Kong and Singapore among others, and how those differences inform the approach …

What Does It Mean To Be ‘Pro-Arbitration’?, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

International arbitration commentators commonly ask of a proposed policy or practice whether it is ‘pro-’ or ‘anti-arbitration’. Framing the question that way presupposes a shared understanding of what does or does not make a policy or practice arbitration-friendly. In truth, the ways in which policies or practices may affect international arbitration’s well-being are manifold. They may even distinctly serve international arbitration’s well-being in some respects while equally distinctly disserving it in others. It behooves those who take international; arbitration’s well-being seriously to acknowledge the multiplicity of metrics for identifying what is ‘pro-’ and what is ‘anti-arbitration’ and to seek the …

Adr And Access To Justice: Current Perspectives, Ellen E. Deason, Michael Z. Green, Donna Shestowsky, Rory Van Loo, Ellen Waldman

Faculty Scholarship

Access to justice is a broad topic, and we cannot cover everything. You will notice a few major omissions. Most notably, we are not going to emphasize consumer pre-dispute arbitration agreements. This is not because they are not important, but because much has been written and said on this topic, and it could easily swallow the whole discussion. Also, we are probably not going to say very much about restorative justice, and I am sure you will notice some other holes. We invite you to raise missing issues in your comments.

Let me start with a few opening remarks. We …

A Review Of Nevada Patron Dispute Decisions, Mark Lerner, Emily Cunningham

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Mosten And Scully’S New Book On Unbundled Legal Services, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post discusses Forrest (Woody) Mosten and Elizabeth Potter Scully’s book, Unbundled Legal Services: A Family Lawyer’s Guide. Unbundling involves providing specified services to legal clients rather than “full service” representation. Unbundling is particularly helpful in family matters because parties generally understand the issues and may represent themselves well if they have some legal help. Many family courts are overwhelmed with large numbers of cases involving self-represented litigants, so providing unbundled legal services can make a significant contribution to the legal system. In virtually all types of cases, some people have the interests in unbundling, not just family matters.

Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post highlights some key findings from survey data and focus-group-like comments from court mediation training for the training participants as well as readers of this blog.

Stone Soup: Learning How People Actually Prepare For Negotiation And Mediation, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post suggests questions in Stone Soup interviews that students can ask lawyers and mediators about how they prepare for negotiation and mediation.

Letter To Kelly, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This is a letter I wrote to someone who was about to start law school. I advised keeping focused on their goals and how best to achieve them. I cautioned about portrayals of lawyers on TV and in the movies. I warned about the “hidden curriculum” which creates misimpressions by focusing on appellate cases. I encouraged them to remember what it is like to be a “normal” person, a perspective they may forget after being initiated in the legal tribe. I advised trying to see the world through others’ eyes.

What A Contract Has Joined Together Let No Court Cast Asunder: Abolishing Separability And Codifying The Scope Of The Provisions Of Arbitration Agreements, Taylor Payne, Richard Bales

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Trade Powers: Balancing Investor-State Dispute Settlement And Environmental Risk Between The European Union And United States In A Changing Political Climate, Sarah Ben-Moussa

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vicarious Liability, Non-Delegable Duty And The Ng Huat Seng Decision, Kee Yang Low

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In recent times, courts in Singapore and elsewhere have been grappling with the issue of delegability of duty of care. In the process, they have vigorously defended the conventional position that a duty of care is, in general, delegable. Accordingly, attempts at broadening the ambit of vicarious liability and non-delegable duty, respectively, have been carefully scrutinized. The recent Singapore Court of Appeal decision of Ng Huat Seng v Munib Mohammad Madni adds to the judicial thinking on this complicated and controversial subject.

International Investment Arbitration In Laos: Large Issues For A Small State, Romesh Weeramantry, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Laos is no stranger to international investment arbitration. Despite its status as one of Southeast Asia's least developed countries, it has had an Investment Law for more than two decades and is also a party to several bilateral and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related investment agreements. More recently, two investment treaty claims have been made against it, one of which has given rise to an award challenge that went all the way to Singapore's highest court. This article will examine the history, evolution and current iteration of Laos' relationship with international investment law and focus on the two …

Court-Connected Alternative Dispute Resolution In Maine, Howard H. Dana Jr.

Maine Law Review

With these words of prophecy the Commission to Study the Future of Maine's Courts launched its discussion of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Although conceding that “the adversary process ... has served the people of the state well” and acknowledging that “the state must continue to provide a forum for forceful advocacy that produces a definite and binding judicial decision” the Commission asked the Maine judicial and legislative branches to embrace ADR. For the last dozen years, the Author has been the Supreme Judicial Court's (SJC's) liaison to its ADR Planning and Implementation Committee and Chair of the Court's Advisory Committee …

Third-Party Funding In International Arbitration, Victoria Sahani

Shorter Faculty Works

Third-party funding, also known as litigation funding, is a financing method in which an entity that is not a party to a particular dispute funds another party’s legal fees or pays an order, award, or judgment rendered against that party, or both. Third-party funding is a growing phenomenon that is becoming more mainstream in both the litigation and the international arbitration communities. The leading jurisdictions worldwide — in terms of volume and sophistication of third-party funding arrangements — are Australia, the U.K., the U.S. and Germany. In the past, third-party funding was a smaller niche market, but in recent years, …

Prompting Deliberation About Nanotechnology: Information, Instruction, And Discussion Effects On Individual Engagement And Knowledge, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, Alan Tomkins

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Deliberative (and educational) theories typically predict knowledge gains will be enhanced by information structure and discussion. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated key features of deliberative public engagement (information, instructions, and discussion) and measured impacts on cognitive-affective engagement and knowledge about nanotechnology. We also examined the direct and moderating impacts of individual differences in need for cognition and gender. Findings indicated little impact of information (organized by topic or by pro-con relevance). Instructions (prompts to think critically) decreased engagement in Study 1, and increased it in Study 2, but did not impact postknowledge. Group discussion had strong positive benefits for …