The 2025 Asian Arbitration Lecture opened with a distinguished presence: The Right Honourable Lady Mary Arden, one of the world’s most respected voices in judicial thought and international arbitration. Co-hosted by Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Centre for Commercial Law in Asia (CCLA) at the Yong Pung How School of Law and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer on 29 October 2025, Lady Arden delivered the keynote titled Arbitration and Winding Up: Is it Time to Embrace Change?, challenging the audience to rethink the relationship between arbitration and insolvency processes.
Lady Arden, who is International Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore and former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, offered a uniquely authoritative perspective shaped by decades of jurisprudence at the highest levels.
She discussed the recent divergence across jurisdictions on whether a winding-up petition should proceed where the underlying debt is disputed and subject to an arbitration clause. While Singapore has traditionally adopted a pro-arbitration approach (as in AnAn (Singapore) Pte Ltd v VTB Bank (Public Joint Stock Company) [2020] SGCA 33), other courts, including the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on appeal from the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, have applied the usual standard for petitions based on disputed debts.
Her lecture also examined the evolving relationship between arbitration agreements and insolvency proceedings, raising thought-provoking questions about whether claims arising in the latter could, in principle, be determined by arbitration. This issue was recently revisited in the SIAC Restructuring and Insolvency Arbitration Protocol, which both Lady Arden and the panel referenced during the event. Lady Arden emphasised the importance of developing a balanced framework that preserves the autonomy of arbitration while recognising the collective nature of insolvency processes.
This topic remains highly relevant to both academics and practitioners engaged in arbitration and commercial dispute resolution.
Lady Arden also participated in a panel discussion which comprised Mr Matt Becker, Partner, Strategy, Risk & Transactions and Turnaround & Restructuring Leader, Deloitte; Associate Professor of Law Darius Chan, Deputy Director of Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy at SMU Yong Pung How School of Law; Mr Daniel Chia, Managing Director and Head of Litigation, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP.
Moderated by Ms Gitta Satryani, Managing Partner, Singapore Office, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP, the panel discussed the emerging convergence in arbitrability standards across jurisdictions, the ways insolvency-related claims challenge the traditional boundaries of arbitration, and the potential for the SIAC Insolvency Arbitration Protocol to bridge differences while preserving judicial oversight. Associate Professor Darius Chan emphasised the limits of party autonomy in insolvency-related arbitrations, noting that questions of arbitrability and public policy ultimately remain matters for judicial determination.
The Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer–SMU Asian Arbitration Lecture Series, established in 2010 through a term-fund contribution by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, continues to promote collaborative forms of dispute resolution and access to justice, reinforcing Singapore’s position as Asia’s centre for arbitration and mediation.
A recording of the lecture can be viewed here.
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