The Bar Council's International Malaysia Law Conference 2016 ("IMLC 2016") was held at The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur from 21 to 23 Sept 2016.
by Clinton Tan
Legal Profession, Practice and Ethics
8:30 – 9:45 am | 23 Sept 2016 (Friday) | Taming Sari 2
Arbitration — international or otherwise — is significantly costlier than litigation in national civil courts. This fact has arguably contrived an environment where less wealthy litigants are often constrained to seek third–party funding to arbitrate, ie where a commercial funder agrees to fund all or part of the arbitration, in exchange for an agreed return.
There are conflicting reasons for and against third–party funding. On the one hand, every person (or entity) should have a right to legal redress, and international arbitration should be no different. On the other hand, it would be undesirable to permit parties to treat international arbitration as a “race track” for investors to gamble for profit.
This session will explore the various approaches taken by ASEAN countries on the issue of third–party funding. Recent and noteworthy developments in this area include the publication by Singapore’s Ministry of Law, on 30 June 2016, of draft legislation to legalise and regulate third–party funding for arbitration in Singapore. In Malaysia, the High Court of Malaya had cause to visit the issue briefly in MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd v AV Asia Sdn Bhd [2014] 3 CLJ 915.
Further, the draft Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Vietnam is paving the way for regulating third–party funding in treaties.
Ranajit Dam, Managing Editor of Thomson Reuters’ Legal Media Group, will moderate this session. A former lawyer, Ranajit brings with him more than a decade of experience as a journalist, having worked in the USA, China, India and Singapore.
Expect to hear from Justin D’Agostino, Global Head of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Dispute Resolution Practice and the firm’s Regional Managing Partner for Asia and Australia, who represented the Malaysian Government in the high–profile “Railway Lands” arbitration; Tatiana Polevshchikova, International Case Counsel at Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (“KLRCA”), who is involved in the administration of international and domestic arbitrations, and adjudications; and Kevin Prakash, President of the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators, who has an active practice in dispute resolution and has been involved in complex disputes in various forms since being called to the Malaysian Bar in 1998.
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