A fair process is foundational to the legitimacy of arbitration. Without a fair, impartial, and equal arbitral process, any party may rightly seek to set aside the resulting arbitral award.
Where an arbitrator has copied significant portions of an award from other sources, is the fair process of the arbitration necessarily compromised? Would the arbitrator’s duty of independence and impartiality necessarily be breached if such a practice is adopted, such that the award should be set aside?
In what appears to be the first decision of its kind across the Commonwealth jurisdictions, the Singapore Court of Appeal (“CA“) dealt with this issue in DJP v DJO [2025] SGCA(I) 2 (“DJP v DJO“), where at least 212 paragraphs of the award in issue (“Award“) had been reproduced from two prior awards. Those awards were made in parallel arbitrations arising out of largely similar contracts (“Parallel Arbitrations“), over which the same presiding arbitrator had also presided.
The CA upheld the earlier decision of the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) Judge to set aside the Award, finding that there had been a breach of natural justice. However, it highlighted that not all such copying of material will necessarily result in a breach of natural justice. This would depend on factors such as the source of copied material and the surrounding circumstances.
Rajah & Tann Singapore partners Francis Xavier, SC (Regional Head, Dispute Resolution) and Alina Chia (Partner, International Arbitration) were instructed counsel for the appellants.
In this article, we delve into the facts of DJP v DJO and the CA’s reasoning.
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