Singapore convention on mediation

This column has previously discussed issues concerning mediation, including the different conceptions of mediation (see China Business Law Journal volume 2 issue 9: Mediation or conciliation?) and the issues that arise when mediation occurs during the course of judicial proceedings (see China Business Law Journal volume 9 issue 8: Judicial mediation). The column below discusses a new convention that was signed in Singapore on 7 August 2019 – the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (also known as the Singapore Convention on Mediation) – and explores its potential impact.

Background to the convention

In some circumstances, a mediation takes place during the course of formal court proceedings and the settlement agreement that follows the mediation is recognized by the court and given the same effect as a court judgment. A similar situation can arise in respect of mediation that takes place during the course of arbitration proceedings, where the settlement agreement is recognized by the arbitration tribunal and is given the same effect as an arbitral award. In these circumstances, the agreement can be enforced in the same way as a court judgment or an arbitral award.

In other circumstances, the mediation occurs outside a formal court or arbitration process. Under these circumstances, any settlement agreement that follows a mediation is treated in the same way as any other contract. In other words, if one of the parties breaches the terms of the settlement agreement, the other party must take enforcement action in accordance with the mechanism provided by the settlement agreement itself – either court proceedings or arbitration – and it then must seek to have the judgment or arbitral award recognized and enforced. This may prove challenging in cross-border disputes, and may involve considerable cost for the party that is seeking to enforce the terms of the settlement agreement.

The Singapore Convention on Mediation is designed to overcome this weakness by providing a basis on which cross-border settlement agreements that result from mediation can be directly enforced in the courts of a state that is a member of the Convention. When incorporating the Convention into domestic law, countries may adopt or adapt the United Nations Model Law on International Commercial Mediation and International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation 2018 (which amends the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation 2002).

General principles

The Convention recognizes two general principles in article 3 (see Citation 1).

引文一 Citation 1

1. 1. 本公约每一当事方应按照本国程序规则并根据本公约规定的条件执行和解协议。

1. 2. 如果就一方当事人声称已由和解协议解决的事项发生争议，公约当事方应允许该当事人按照本国程序规则并根据本公约规定的条件援用和解协议，以证明该事项已得到解决。

1. 1. Each Party to the Convention shall enforce a settlement agreement in accordance with its rules of procedure and under the conditions laid down in this Convention.

1. 2. If a dispute arises concerning a matter that a party claims was already resolved by a settlement agreement, a party to the Convention shall allow the party to invoke the settlement agreement in accordance with its rules of procedure and under the conditions laid down in this Convention, in order to prove that the matter has already been resolved.

On this basis, the Convention is described as operating as both a sword and a shield; namely, it can be used to enable a party to enforce the settlement agreement against the other party if it breaches the settlement agreement (the sword), and can also be used to enable a party to prevent the other party from taking legal action in respect of a matter that has already been resolved by the settlement agreement (the shield).

An outline of key provisions of the Convention is set out below.

A former partner of Linklaters Shanghai, Andrew Godwin teaches law at Melbourne Law School in Australia, where he is an associate director of its Asian Law Centre. Andrew’s new book is a compilation of China Business Law Journal’s popular Lexicon series, entitled China Lexicon: Defining and translating legal terms. The book is published by Vantage Asia and available at law.asia.