Singapore's planned international commercial court to take legal business away from London and Hong Kong

Singapore’s ambitious plans for an international commercial court are set to expand upon the city state’s success in arbitration, helping it siphon away more legal business from rivals like London and Hong Kong.

The court, announced in December and which could be launched by the end of the year, would also come with a mediation centre as Singapore seeks to remake itself as Asia’s one-stop legal city, offering all three types of dispute resolution.

That would help set Singapore apart from Hong Kong, which does not have a commercial court, as well as encroach on London’s dominance in litigation for big cross-border corporate spats.

“Among the leading cities for dispute resolution, some are resting on their laurels and others are trying increase their attractiveness to parties – Singapore leads the pack in the latter category,” said Michael McIlwrath, senior litigation counsel for GE Oil & Gas, who is based in Florence, Italy.

Benefiting from the city state’s position as a regional business hub, its strong judicial system and a rise in disputes as Asia-related trade grows rapidly, Singapore’s arbitration centre has tripled the annual number of new cases it handles since its launch in 1991.

Recent high-profile disputes include French food giant Danone taking on New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative over a false alarm about contaminated milk powder, Phillip Morris challenging Australia’s government on plain tobacco packaging rules, and Churchill Mining’s US$2 billion case against Indonesia’s government over coal rights.