Asia Pacific Arbitration Roundup 2021

Welcome to our annual Asia Pacific Arbitration Roundup where we review significant case updates and key developments in international arbitration across various Asia Pacific jurisdictions in the past year.

2021 continued to be a year of both development and innovation for international arbitration in the Asia Pacific region as arbitral institutions in the region continued to adapt to the pandemic. In Australia, the new ACICA Arbitration Rules were published and took effect from 1 April 2021; in Japan the JCAA also made amendments to its arbitration rules and enacted the Appointing Authority Rules effective from 1 July 2021; in China, the widely anticipated revised draft Arbitration Law was published and the supplemental arrangement concerning the mutual enforcement of arbitral awards between Hong Kong and China was fully implemented; in Singapore, the bill allowing conditional fee arrangements was passed offering new options for parties to fund their arbitrations and, finally in New Zealand, the Law Commission on the other hand explored a new regulatory regime for third party funding.

National courts in the region also continued to demonstrate a generally consistent pro-arbitration approach, which is evidenced in the case law highlighted in this publication dealing with matters including enforcement of arbitration awards and the enforcement and interpretation of arbitration agreements.