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Article summary

Arbitration analysis: The Singapore Court of Appeal upheld a decision to set aside an award (‘Award’) where the tribunal had copied and pasted a substantial portion of an arbitrator’s decision from a similar but separate arbitration. At least 212 paragraphs from a separate award were retained in the Award. The Court of Appeal found that there was a breach of natural justice. Given the confidentiality of arbitrations, where an arbitrator reproduces material from another source, such as another arbitral award, parties and the other arbitrators may not have access to the material. This may lead to reasonable suspicion that the tribunal had pre-judged the dispute, without considering the new materials in the present arbitration, or may be influenced by confirmation bias. Further, reference to extraneous materials in a separate award may not give parties adequate opportunities to review or submit on, breaching the fair hearing rule. Written by Violet Huang, counsel at Colin Seow Chambers, member of Nusa Chambers.