The 26th Goff Arbitration Lecture by Chief Justice SUNDARESH Menon of Singapore: “The Complexification of Disputes in the Digital Age”
CityU School of Law, in cooperation with Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), held the 26th Goff Arbitration Lecture on 9 November 2021. This year, we were honoured to have Chief Justice SUNDARESH Menon, Supreme Court of Singapore, as the speaker to give a lecture entitled “The Complexification of Disputes in the Digital Age”.
The lecture kicked off with the welcome speech by Professor TAN Cheng-Han, SC (Dean of School of Law and Chair Professor, Commercial Law, CityU). Professor Tan explained the background and the aims of the Goff Arbitration Lecture. He also introduced the speaker and thanked all the participants for their support for the lecture.
Chief Justice Menon discussed the challenges posted by the increasing “complexification” of disputes. He explained that the “complexity problem” is the concern that there is now a growing class of disputes so factually rich and complex that they are virtually impossible to adjudicate fairly and properly.
“Change will only come if there is general acceptance of the serious consequences that complexity can have on our ability to do justice,” Chief Justice Menon said. He made the suggestions: “Counsel and litigants must genuinely believe that their best interests are not served by flooding the adjudicators with information. Adjudicators must accept that robust measures to contain the material before them may be required. Supervisory courts (in the case of arbitrations) need to understand these constraints and make sensible decisions when dealing with due process challenges against arbitral awards.”
After the lecture, the participants raised questions and interacted with Chief Justice Menon in the Q&A session moderated by Mr KAPLAN Neil CBE QC SBS (International Arbitrator, Arbitration Chambers Hong Kong). Chief Justice Menon expressed confidence in HK as a dispute resolution centre and said CityU School of Law's interdisciplinary programmes is the right way forward for legal education. Please click here for the transcript of Q&A. Finally, Dr TO Christopher (Adjunct Professor and Master of Laws in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Programme Director, School of Law, CityU) closed the lecture and thanked Chief Justice Menon for delivering an insightful lecture.
2021年11月9日，城大法律學院與香港國際仲裁中心合作，在香港國際仲裁中心舉行了第二十六屆戈夫仲裁講座。今年，學院很榮幸邀請到新加坡最高法院首席大法官SUNDARESH Menon主講「數碼時代下糾紛的複雜化」。
講座由城大法律學院院長、商業法講座教授及資深大律師陳清漢教授 (Professor TAN Cheng-Han) 致歡迎辭揭開序幕。陳教授解釋了戈夫仲裁講座的背景和目的，亦介紹了首席大法官Menon且感謝所有參與者對講座的支持。
首席大法官Menon在講座中探討了科技的發展為仲裁所帶來的挑戰。他解釋說「複雜性問題」是現在越來越多的糾紛案件信息量太大、太複雜，以至於幾乎不可能公平和適當地裁決。
他說：「只有當大眾普遍接受複雜性可能對我們伸張正義的能力造成的嚴重影響時，變革才會到來。」對此，他提出了以下建議：「律師和訴訟當事人必須明白向裁決者提供大量信息並不符合他們的最大利益。裁決者可能需要採取強硬措施來控制書面材料的數量。監管法院（就仲裁而言）需要了解這些限制，並在處理針對仲裁裁決程序的挑戰時做出明智的決定。」
演講結束之後，聽眾向講者提問，與講者積極互動。提問環節由獨立仲裁員嘉柏倫先生(Mr KAPLAN Neil CBE QC SBS) 主持。首席大法官Menon表達了他對香港作為爭議解決中心充滿信心，並表示城大法律學院的跨學科課程正沿著法律教育的正確方向發展。請點擊此處查看問答記錄。最後，城大法律學院客席教授、法學碩士（仲裁及爭議解決學）課程主任陶榮博士向講者致謝，感謝他為大家帶來一場精彩而富有啟發性的講座。