Guide to the Siac Arbitration Rules

This is the first text to provide a comprehensive rule-by-rule commentary of the inception, interpretation, and application of the SIAC Rules, written by practitioners with extensive experience in South East Asia arbitrations. Practical and strategic in approach, this book provides useful guidance for practitioners whilst also delivering commentary and thematic analysis to highlight the connections between the SIAC rules and those of other institutions.

The book begins with an introduction to Singapore arbitration, both practical and legal, and is followed by an overview of SIAC arbitration, including the different stages of a typical case and the corporate structure of SIAC. Every rule is then examined in detail on a thematic basis, starting with the commencement of an arbitration and working up to and including the rendering of an award and the determination of costs. This new edition has been fully updated to include the 2016 SIAC Rules, and also contains additional chapters on the new rules on multiple contracts, consolidation, and joinder, the early dismissal of claims and defences, and the SIAC Investment Arbitration Rules (2017). Relevant supporting documents are appended, including SIAC Practice Notes and the SIAC Code of Ethics for Arbitrators.

This book stands alone as a comprehensive exposition of SIAC arbitration, and is indispensable for any practitioner involved in arbitration in Asia.

John Choong, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer,Mark Mangan, Partner, Dechert LLP,Nicholas Lingard, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

John Choong is a partner with the International Arbitration Group of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. John has, over the course of some 15 years, handled disputes involving all the major jurisdictions and laws in Asia. He has been based in both Singapore and Hong Kong, and has represented clients in a wide range of international commercial and investment arbitrations under the major arbitration rules (including the SIAC Rules and the SIAC Domestic Arbitration Rules). These matters have ranged in value and complexity, covering a wide range of industries and subject matter, and have included a number of billion dollar arbitrations.

John is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute and Singapore and Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators. He serves on the SIAC Users Council National Committee (Hong Kong) and is also a Singapore country rapporteur for the ICC Task Force on the New York Convention, a founding member of the HK45 arbitration group, and a director of the HK Arbitration Charity Ball Limited.

Mark Mangan is an experienced arbitration practitioner based in Singapore who has acted as counsel in over 25 commercial, investment treaty and sports arbitrations under the rules of various institutions and numerous ad hoc arbitrations. He has also been appointed as arbitrator in cases arising under the ICC, LCIA and SCC rules and by SIAC in ad hoc cases governed by the Singapore International Arbitration Act. He is a member of the panel of arbitrators for the HKIAC, the KLRCA, and CAS, a member of the LCIA India Users' Council, a fellow of ACICA, a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, and sits on the advisory board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. Mark has written numerous articles and book chapters on international arbitration, speaks regularly at international arbitration conferences, has lectured at various universities in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, and is a co-editor of GAR's Investment Treaty Know-how series.


Nicholas Lingard is an experienced international arbitration counsel and advocate. He leads one of the most active treaty arbitration practices in Asia, representing both investors and states, in high-profile, politically complex cases around Asia and the world. Nick represents clients in commercial disputes across a variety of industries, under all the major arbitral rules, including SIAC, ICC, UNCITRAL, HKIAC, AAA and NAI, and under all major systems of law. He also frequently assists clients with public international law advice, including to structure investments for the protections provided by bilateral investment treaties.

Nick is an Expert member of the Energy Charter Treaty Secretariat's legal advisory task force, a member of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre Users Council (appointed September 2015), and also Lectures on international arbitration at Hitotsubashi University School of Law, Tokyo, Japan.