On Wednesday morning (Singapore time), the United Nations
Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from
Mediation, also known as the
Singapore Convention, will be signed. Close to 40 countries are
expected to sign, including the world’s two largest
economies, China and the US. Around 70 states will be represented
and 900 delegates are expected to attend the signing ceremony in
Singapore.
The aim of the Convention is to implement an international
regime for the enforcement of settlement agreements reached through
mediation, broadly akin to the 1958 New York Convention for the
enforcement of arbitral awards.
If widely ratified, it clearly has the potential to increase the
attraction of mediation for international parties and to entrench
it as a reliable option for resolving cross-border commercial
disputes, which courts around the world will recognise. Many hope
that it will achieve for mediation what the New York Convention has
done for
