We are soon to have a new international regime for the enforcement of mediated settlement agreements.
The UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, which will be known as the Singapore Convention, was approved in June 2018 by UNCITRAL (the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law). It is expected to be open for signature from 1 August 2019 and will come into force upon ratification by at least three contracting States.
The Convention will oblige contracting States (except in specified limited circumstances) to recognise international settlement agreements resulting from mediation in commercial disputes, either to enforce the agreement or allow it to be invoked as a defence to a claim (that is, either as a sword or a shield).
It is hoped that the Singapore Convention will achieve for mediation what the New York Convention has for international arbitration, encouraging a greater global acceptance of mediation as a credible and reliable dispute resolution mechanism in international commerce.
For more detail on the Convention, and commentary on how likely it is to achieve that aim, see the article by Jan O'Neill (Professional Support Lawyer, London) recently published on the Practical Law Dispute Resolution Blog, here.
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