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The Ministry of Justice has launched a consultation seeking views on how the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (the "Singapore Convention") could be implemented into domestic law.
The UK signed the Singapore Convention on 3 May 2023, but has not yet ratified it. The Government has confirmed that it is "committed to ratifying the Convention once all the necessary domestic implementing measures are in place". Following the Court of Appeal's decision in Churchill (in which it was confirmed that the court has the power to mandate the use of ADR) and the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention recently taking effect (thereby improving enforcement options), this represents a further positive step forward for alternative dispute resolution and enforcement.
What is the Singapore Convention?
The Singapore Convention is a multilateral treaty which has been in force since September 2020. Subject to some exceptions and safeguards, the Convention requires contracting states to recognise and enforce settlement agreements (which must be in writing) resulting from mediation in cases involving an international commercial dispute, meaning that the need to commence fresh proceedings to enforce such settlement agreements is removed. Further, if a dispute arises concerning a matter which a party claims has already been resolved by a mediated settlement agreement, a party to the Singapore Convention will allow the mediated settlement agreement to be invoked in order to prove this.
Its aim is to strengthen the existing international framework of rules assisting enforcement, which include the New York Convention and Hague Conventions, as well as to encourage the adoption of mediation as a cost-effective dispute resolution tool, facilitating international trade.
"Since 1990, when mediation began in earnest in England and Wales, disputes totalling a value of £195 billion have been mediated, with at least £20 billion of disputes now being mediated a year. The savings to business from this are noted as being worth around £5.9 billion" - Lady Chief Justice speech to British Institute of International and Comparative Law
The Singapore Convention encourages businesses to choose mediation as a dispute resolution mechanism in the knowledge that a negotiated settlement can be enforced more readily by contracting states.
The Convention currently has 58 signatories, with 19 parties having ratified, including Brazil, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
Pursuant to Article 8(1) of the Convention, it is possible for a party to make reservations upon ratification, including that the Convention will only apply to the extent that the parties to the settlement agreement have agreed to its application, which may limit its scope. To date, only Georgia, Israel, Japan and Kazakhstan have made this reservation.
The consultation
The consultation seeks views on proposals and options for how the Singapore Convention might be implemented and operate in the UK, including the proposed court-based registration model, the sequencing of registration steps, the proposed requirement to register an agreement prior to invoking it in other proceedings, challenge options, the treatment of certain undefined Convention terms, and the approach to consideration of grounds for refusal under Article 5.
The consultation closes on 29 October 2025.
Concluding comments
A clear commitment seems to have been made by the Government to ratify the Singapore Convention. Ratification will further promote mediation as a powerful method of resolving international commercial disputes, in addition to litigation and arbitration, and will provide simpler enforcement options. It will provide an even stronger incentive for parties to cross-border disputes to mediate their differences as more and more countries ratify it, in a similar way to the New York Convention.
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