09 New points of SIAC Rules 2025
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), a leading international arbitration centre in the region, has published the 7th Edition of the Arbitration Rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC Rules 2025”) which will come into force on 01 January 2025.
Drawing on the SIAC’s experience in dispute resolution, the SIAC Rules 2025 (7th Edition) incorporates features designed to improve the arbitral process of resolving international disputes.
The SIAC Rules 2025 introduce new procedures and enhancements to existing processes aimed at consistently achieving:
- fairness of the proceedings;
- efficiency in the conduct of the arbitration proportionate to the amount and complexity of issues in dispute; and
- enforceability of any award.
To gain a deeper understanding of the legal provisions governing the authority of arbitral tribunals to resolve disputes, the practical application thereof and the new features of the SIAC Rules 2025, CNC is pleased to present this article on the 09 new points of SIAC Rules 2025.
Objectives of SIAC Rules 2025
According to the SIAC announcement, the key changes in the SIAC Rules 2025 include:
Key changes in the SIAC Rules 2025
Download PDF file here: CNC-09 new points of SIAC Rules 2025.
The SIAC Rules 2025 regulates Streamlined Procedure and Expedited Procedure
Under the SIAC Rules 2025, the Streamlined Procedure is designed to provide a swift and low-cost method of dispute resolution for low-value and straightforward disputes.
The expedited procedure may be applied in 02 cases: (i) by application of a party, or (ii) the amount in dispute does not exceed the equivalent amount of SGD 1,000,000, unless the President of the SIAC Court determines upon application of a party that shall not apply to the arbitration[1].
Arbitrations under the Streamlined Procedure are heard by a sole arbitrator and unless the Tribunal decides otherwise:
- The arbitration shall be decided on the basis of written submissions and shall not be conducted by hearings, unless the tribunal determines that a hearing is necessary under the circumstances or a party requests a hearing and the Tribunal accepts the request;
- no party shall be entitled to make requests for document production; and
- no party shall be entitled to file any fact or expert witness evidence[2].
Decision of the Arbitral Tribunal in the Streamlined Procedure
The SIAC Rules 2025 also specify that the Streamlined Procedure requires an award to be made within 03 months from the date of constitution of the Tribunal, unless the Registrar extends the time for making such final award. The tribunal’s fees and SIAC administrative fees in arbitrations under the Streamlined Procedure are capped at 50% of the maximum limits under the Schedule of Fees[3].
Complementing the introduction of the Streamlined Procedure, the SIAC Rules 2025 also amend the conditions for application of Expedited Procedure compared to the current version:
- Raise the threshold for the value of the dispute for parties to request the Expedited Procedure for the conduct of arbitration to SGD 10 million (from the current SGD 06 million) and propose a minimum of SGD 01 million to avoid duplication with the Expedited Procedure; or
- The expedited procedure may be applied to disputes below SGD 01 million when the SIAC President decides that the Streamlined Procedure will not be applied, or in other cases where the conditions for applying the Expedited Procedure are met.
The application of the Expedited Procedure requires an award to be made within 06 months from the date of constitution of the tribunal.
It can be said that, the introduction of the Streamlined Procedure in the 2025 SIAC Rules serves as a complementary solution to the existing Expedited Procedure of SIAC and is particularly suitable for less complex and low-value disputes.
Through this, SIAC can attract more such cases in the region, not just as an option for high-value disputes.
The SIAC Rule 2025 regulates Preliminary determination
Article 46.1 of the SIAC Rules 2025 provides that a party may request the Arbitral Tribunal to make a Preliminary determination on any matter, provided that the parties agree to such a request or where the requesting party demonstrates that the determination would save time and costs in the proceedings.
The 2025 SIAC Rules also clarify the tribunal’s authority to determine the procedures for rendering Preliminary determination (provided that the parties are given a reasonable opportunity to be heard), and that such decisions will be final and binding on the parties[4]. This rule codifies the inherent authority of the tribunal to decide various issues at different stages and provides a suggestion for the parties and the tribunal to utilize these procedural mechanisms to achieve efficiency by considering the resolution of issues.
In the event the application for preliminary determination is allowed to proceed, the Tribunal shall be required to make its decision, ruling, order or award on the application within 90 days from the date of the application, unless the Registrar extends the time[5].
The SIAC Rules 2025 show that the Preliminary determination mechanism may allow parties to save time and costs by dealing with threshold issues early in the proceedings, thereby potentially narrowing the issues that need to be addressed in subsequent phases of the arbitration.
Moreover, the early determination of certain issues could also allow parties to reassess the costs and benefits of proceeding with the arbitral proceedings, and facilitate the amicable settlement of the dispute.
The SIAC Rule 2025 regulates Emergency Arbitrator Procedure and Protective Preliminary Orders
Emergency arbitration is a mechanism that allows a party to request the application of emergency interim in urgent situations, even when the Arbitral Tribunal of the case has not yet been established, to ensure legitimate interests (such as prohibiting any change to the status quo of the disputed assets) without going through a national court.
Under SIAC Rules 2016, where a party wishing to seek emergency interim relief may only make such an application concurrent with or following the filing of the Notice of Arbitration. However, in such cases, the application for emergency interim may be delayed due to the careful preparation and filing of the Notice of Arbitration.
To overcome the above limitation, the SIAC Rules 2025 allows a party to request Emergency Arbitration before filing a Notice of Arbitration[6], and subsequently, the Notice of Arbitration must be filed within 7 days from the date the Secretary receives the request for Emergency Arbitration, otherwise the request shall be deemed withdrawn.
In addition, the SIAC Rules 2025 also introduce a new mechanism that allows a party to request SIAC to apply a protective preliminary order – such as prohibiting a party from destroying or altering important documents – at the same time as requesting a regular interim measure.
Unlike the case of a request for temporary emergency interim only, the filing of a request in this case will not require prior notification to the other party.
The SIAC Rules 2025 provide that the Emergency Arbitrator – who is appointed by the President of SIAC – is required to determine the Protective Preliminary Order Application within 24 hours from the Emergency Arbitrator’s appointment. An applicant is required to promptly transmit any such preliminary order to any counterparties within 12 hours of the order, failing which the protective preliminary order shall expire 03 days after the date on which it was issued[7]. The Emergency Arbitrator is also required to allow the party against whom the order is sought an opportunity to be heard as soon as possible[8].
The SIAC Rules 2025 regulates the Coordinated proceedings
Similar to most arbitration rules of other centers, the 2016 SIAC Rules provide a mechanism for consolidating related arbitration proceedings into a single proceeding[9].
The SIAC Rules 2025 introduce a mechanism to address the situation where related arbitration cases are not consolidated into a single case. In this case, if the cases are the same Arbitral Tribunal and have common legal or factual issues, a party may apply to have the arbitrations consolidated so that[10]:
– The arbitrations shall be conducted concurrently or sequentially;
– The arbitrations shall be heard together and any procedural aspects shall be aligned; or
– Any of the arbitrations shall be suspended pending a determination in any of the other arbitrations.
Application for coordination of arbitration cases
Note that although the cases are conducted in coordination with each other, they remain separate cases and will be decided upon by the arbitral tribunal with separate decisions.
This may be useful in cases where there are multiple related proceedings (e.g. between a developer, the main contractor and various subcontractors), it also aims to provide an additional procedural mechanism to streamline the resolution of multiple complex arbitrations, reduce the risk of inconsistent or conflicting outcomes and avoid duplication of costs across multiple proceedings.
The SIAC Rules 2025 regulates third-party funding arrangements
Since 2017, SIAC has issued a Practice Note on third-party funding in arbitration proceedings, under which the arbitral tribunal has the power to require parties to disclose third-party funding.
The SIAC Rules 2025 have formally acknowledged the above issue in Rule 38. A party is obliged to disclose the existence of any third-party funding agreement and the identity of the third-party funder[11]. In addition, the Arbitral Tribunal is empowered to order the disclosure of additional information regarding funding arrangements (including the funder’s interest in the outcome of the proceedings and whether the funder has committed to undertake adverse costs liability) after considering the views of the parties[12].
After the arbitral tribunal has been constituted, the parties are not permitted to enter into third-party funding agreements that could give rise to a conflict of interest with the members of the arbitral tribunal[13].
Significantly, the SIAC Rules 2025 also provide that the tribunal may take into account any third-party funding agreement in apportioning costs.
The SIAC Rule 2025 regulates other new features
Provision for the integration of SIAC Gateway into case management under the Rules[14]: SIAC Gateway is SIAC’s cloud-based case management platform offering features such as electronic filing, an integrated online payment system, secure document upload and storage, and real-time case management. Hearings can be conducted in-person, hybrid or through video/teleconference[15].
This is likely to make it easier for parties and the tribunal to access the relevant case documents at any point in time, and will likely allow parties to resolve the dispute in a more cost-efficient manner. Additionally, Tribunals are also required to discuss information security measures with parties to protect electronically shared data, reflecting the increased use of remote technologies in international arbitration[16].
Upon notification of the commencement of the arbitration and at any stage of the arbitration thereafter, after considering the views of the parties and the tribunal, the Registrar may direct the parties to upload all written communications to SIAC Gateway. The Rules also now explicitly recognise that parties may file a Notice of Arbitration online with the Secretariat through SIAC Gateway.
Prima Facie Jurisdictional Objection: Provision to allow the Registrar to refer an issue of jurisdiction to the SIAC Court for a prima facie determination where a respondent is not participating in proceedings, or any party objects to the existence, validity or applicability of an arbitration agreement prior to the constitution of a tribunal. Where the SIAC Court determines that the arbitration shall not proceed, in whole or in part, the Registrar shall terminate the arbitration in accordance with the decision of the SIAC Court[17].
Time limit to submit draft awards: According to the SIAC Rules 2016, the time limit for the Arbitral Tribunal to submit a draft award to SIAC for review is 45 days from the date on which the Arbitral Tribunal declares the proceedings closed (meaning this timing will depend on the Arbitral Tribunal)[18]. The SIAC Rules 2025, on the other hand, provide a fixed time limit for the Arbitral Tribunal to submit a draft award: 90 days from the date of the last hearing or submission[19].
Sustainability: New rules encourage Arbitral Tribunals to consider whether it would be appropriate to adopt environmentally sustainable procedures for the arbitration[20].
Conclusion
The SIAC Rules 2025 introduce various new procedures and modify existing mechanisms with a view to improving procedural efficiencies according to the SIAC Rules 2016 to deal with situations brought about by obstructive or non-participating parties and other problematic case administration scenarios.
The SIAC has undertaken a commendably comprehensive review of the SIAC Rules 2025, based on its extensive case administration experience. The SIAC Rules 2025 offers a broad range of procedural mechanisms which – to an even greater extent – should enable the SIAC, the parties and the Tribunal to tailor the arbitration proceedings to the requirements of a particular dispute.
In addition, the parties need to clearly understand how these new procedures and modifications will affect the manner in which the arbitration will be conducted, particularly given that some of these procedures/modifications set out a default position to be applied unless parties have agreed to the contrary. In the event parties wish to exclude certain procedures/mechanisms, it may also be useful to have this expressly set out in the parties’s arbitration agreement.
Written by
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Senior Associate – Tran Pham Hoang Tung
Phone: (84) 901 334 192 Email: tung.tran@cnccounsel.com |
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Collaborator – Bui Huong Giang
Phone: (84) 347 924 900 |
[1] Rule 13.1(b) of the SIAC Rules 2025
[2] Appendix 2 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[3] Appendix 2 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[4] Rule 46 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[5] Rule 46.4(b) of the SIAC Rules 2025
[6] Appendix 12 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[7] Paragraphs 29 and 30, Appendix 1 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[8] Paragraphs 31, Appendix 1 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[9] Rule 8 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[10] Rule 17 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[11] Rule 38.1 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[12] Rule 38.4 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[13] Rule 38.3 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[14] Rule 4 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[15] Rule 39.2 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[16] Rule 61 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[17] Rule 8.1 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[18] Rule 32.3 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[19] Rule 60 of the SIAC Rules 2025
[20] Rule 32.4(b) of SIAC Rules 2025
