At the 4th full meeting of SIFoCC in Sydney in October 2022, the Hon Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon of Singapore delivered the keynote address entitled “SIFoCC playing its part as a cornerstone of a transnational system of commercial justice”

The key messages were as follows – 

1. In order to support a globalised, interconnected world, we should develop and sustain a transnational system of commercial justice. This involves pursuing meaningful convergence in the commercial laws of jurisdictions around the world, and regarding international commercial law and international commercial dispute resolution as parts of a system rather than mere compilations of rules.
2. International judicial dialogue is an important driver of meaningful convergence. This takes place not only through the publication of judgments which are considered by courts in other jurisdictions, but also through direct communication and collaboration between judges across jurisdictions. Examples of this include organisations like SIFoCC, and the extremely successful use of court-to-court communication in cross-border insolvency cases.
3. There are a number of ways in which we can intentionally work to enhance the transnational system of commercial justice. One is by developing common approaches to the management of conflicts over where and how a transnational dispute should be resolved, and the standards that should apply to the conduct of arbitration and mediation. Another is by raising the capabilities of adjudicators to tackle challenges such as the growing complexity of disputes, and to address the new legal issues that will be raised by global problems such as climate change.

These are all areas in which SIFoCC is well-placed to contribute. Moving forward, SIFoCC should build formal relationships with leading arbitration and mediation institutions and bring the stakeholders in the transnational system of commercial justice together in an ongoing conversation, so as to ensure that dispute resolution providers around the world are equipped to support the delivery of justice nationally and internationally.

The full text of the address can be found here.