Today we begin a blog series on the Singapore Convention. Each post includes the annotation to one of the Convention´s rules.

The authors of the texts are master students from NOVA School of Law. In the classes on Mediation – Techniques and Process (2019 and 2020) students were challenged to research and write about the Convention.

This work shows how collaboration, which is so important in mediation, also bears valuable fruit in academia. Congratulations to all the students for the interest, commitment and seriousness with which they faced the challenge.

The complete annotation can be found here in Portuguese (Anuário – Ano 3).

The United Nations Convention on International Mediation Agreements, also known as the Singapore Convention, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 2018 and signed, in Singapore, on 7 August 2019.

The Convention entered into force on 12 September 2020 and currently has 56 signatory states.

The aim of the Convention is to contribute to the development of international trade by adding another piece to the puzzle of international dispute settlement.

The Convention will enable the recognition and enforcement of agreements resulting from mediation in the national courts of the States which are party to it, while recognising the importance of mediation as a means of resolving international disputes and encouraging its growth by guaranteeing the effectiveness of agreements reached in mediation.

The parallel with the 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, also known as the New York Convention, is striking. Disputes in international trade are diverse, so there is every interest in the availability of diverse means of dispute resolution. State courts, arbitration and mediation should be seen as complementary ways of solving problems, as different tools between which companies choose in each case.

Our aim is to contribute to the discussion of this relevant and current topic.

Let us begin!