Introduction: Towards a Model of Arbitration Reform in the Asia Pacific

Abstract

This chapter proposes a hypothetical model for arbitration reform in the Asia Pacific. It also explains the template that the contributors to subsequent chapters on 12 Asia Pacific jurisdictions (namely, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, India and Australia) were requested to follow in writing their respective chapters. It does so by identifying the questions that the contributors were invited to consider and, insofar as appropriate to the course of arbitration reform in the relevant jurisdiction, to comment upon in their chapter. Then, the chapter introduces crucial instruments of international commercial arbitration, including the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention) and the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Arbitration as amended in 2006 (the Model Law). Last, by way of overview, this chapter gives thumbnail sketches of the road to arbitration reform taken by the Asia Pacific jurisdictions which constitute the subject matter of the succeeding chapters.