While the UK’s signing of the Singapore Convention has been welcomed, how much practical change will it bring about? John McElroy weighs up the impact on parties to mediation
- The UK’s signing of the Singapore Convention has generally been welcomed, but it is unlikely to result in major changes for parties participating in mediation in the UK.
- Compulsory mediation in practice will have some benefits but, if extended to the highest value cases, could also waste time and resources.
On 3 May 2023, the UK signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation (formally the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation). The UK’s ratification of the Singapore Convention will result in an alternative procedure for enforcing settlement agreements achieved by mediation anywhere in the world in the English courts. Signing the Convention is part of the UK government’s strategy to increasingly adopt measures supporting alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
The Convention enables a party to a mediated settlement agreement to apply to the courts of a country which is a signing party to the Convention to enforce the terms
