Rajah & Tann Singapore’s Wu Junneng has contributed an article titled “Free-Standing Injunctions and Service Out of Jurisdiction: Time for Recalibration?” to the SAL Practitioner. Published by the Singapore Academy of Law, the SAL Practitioner is a practice-oriented journal that features articles, comments, case notes, and legislative updates pertinent to Singapore legal practice.
Section 4(10A) of the Civil Law Act 1909 (“section 4(10A)“), introduced by amendment in 2022, empowers the Singapore courts to grant interim relief in aid of foreign proceedings. It allows a party to obtain a “free-standing” injunction from the Singapore courts, i.e. injunctive relief that need not be commenced or grounded on a substantive cause of action in Singapore. However, the effectiveness of such relief depends on the claimant’s ability to serve it out of jurisdiction. Service out of jurisdiction is therefore not merely incidental but a practical necessity.
The difficulty lies in the existing requirements for obtaining permission to serve out of jurisdiction, particularly the need to demonstrate that Singapore is the natural forum, or forum conveniens. This sits uneasily with the premise of a section 4(10A) application, where the substantive dispute is being resolved elsewhere.
Authored by Partner Wu Junneng from the Shipping & International Trade Practice, the article examines this tension in Singapore’s procedural framework. It highlights the potential for the forum conveniens requirement to constrain the utility of free-standing injunctions in aid of foreign proceedings, and argues that while the requirement should remain as a procedural safeguard, the threshold for establishing a sufficient nexus to Singapore should be recalibrated in the context of section 4(10A).
This article will be of particular interest to commercial litigators and arbitration practitioners involved in cross-border disputes, offering timely insight into the procedural issues that may arise when seeking interim relief from the Singapore courts in support of foreign proceedings.
The article referred to was published in the SAL Practitioner on 3 August 2026 on Journals Online. The original publication can be found here. © 2026 Contributor(s) and Singapore Academy of Law; no part of the article may be reproduced without permission from the copyright holders.
Find out more about our Shipping & International Trade Practice here.
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