Partner Katie Chung and Special Counsel Lukas Lim wrote an arbitration analysis on a case involving an application to set aside a Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) tribunal's award terminating an arbitration under Article 32(2)(c) of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration 1985 (Model Law), on the basis that international sanctions imposed on the claimant had rendered it impossible to continue the arbitration proceedings. The Singapore High Court dismissed the setting aside application. The court held that Article 32(2)(c) obliges a tribunal to terminate an arbitration when it finds as a fact that continuation has become impossible. This obligation is mandatory and leaves no room for the tribunal to weigh the prejudice to either party or to consider the cause of the impossibility. The right to a determination on the merits is not absolute and is implicitly qualified by Article 32(2)(c). The court further held that the tribunal had afforded the applicant natural justice throughout the process of determining the termination application.

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