Global Pound Conference Series, Singapore 2016 Proceedings
About The Global Pound Conference Series
Some 40 years ago, in 1976, the modern ADR movement was born out of the Pound Conference in St Paul, Minnesota, USA. At this conference, Professor Frank E.A. Sander of Harvard Law School proposed that alternative forms of dispute resolution should be used to reduce reliance on conventional litigation, and overcome reluctance to use other dispute resolution options. These ideas led to many changes, not just in the USA, but around the world.
While the ADR movement has seen the increasing use of arbitration and mediation (and its hybrids), implementation and development of the ADR movement has been fragmented and with varying degrees of success. This was in part due to the lack of reliable, comparative and actionable data to inform and guide, inter alia, law and policy makers, service providers, training organizations and educators.
This brings us to the Global Pound Conference (GPC) Series which is titled “Shaping the Future of Dispute Resolution & Improving Access to Justice”. The aim of the GPC Series is to convene all stakeholders in dispute resolution at conferences around the world. These conferences are intended to provoke debate on existing tools and techniques, stimulate new ideas and generate actionable data on what corporate and individual dispute resolution users actually need, both locally and globally. This will in turn enable the dispute resolution field to consider how to adapt existing services to be optimally aligned to disputants’ needs and means.
The GPC Series encompasses all forms of dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, conciliation, and mediation and consider how disputants in civil and commercial conflicts can use appropriate dispute resolution processes that are responsive to their needs, proportionate to the costs and time spent. The series also explores issues such as enforceability as well as social and cultural matters.
The inaugural conference in the GPC Series was held in Singapore on 17-18 March 2016. Apart from an opening keynote address by the Chief Justice of Singapore, the Honourable the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, and a closing address by Senior Minister for State for Law and Finance, Ms Indranee Rajah S.C., the conference encompassed 4 Core Questions sessions, each revolving around a particular theme and involved interactive audience voting and a panel discussion. The voting results and trends were then explored and discussed in a closing plenary.
(The texts of the speeches, the summaries of the Core Questions Sessions, the Voting Results and the summary of the closing plenary discussion can be downloaded by clicking on the links below)
(1) Keynote Address by The Honourable the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon
(2) GPC Core Questions – Interactive Voting and Discussion Session 1 (Access to Justice & Dispute Resolution Systems: what do users need & expect?)
(3) GPC Core Questions – Interactive Voting and Discussion Session 2 (How is the market currently addressing these needs and expectations?)
(4) GPC Core Questions – Interactive Voting and Discussion Session 3 (How can dispute resolution be improved? (Overcoming obstacles and challenges)
(5) GPC Core Questions – Interactive Voting and Discussion Session 4 (Promoting better access to justice: What action items should be considered and by whom?)
(6) Voting Results*
(7) Closing Plenary
(8) Closing Address by Ms Indranee Rajah S.C., Senior Minister for State for Law and Finance
The GPC Series is a pivotal moment in the development of dispute resolution. It allows all stakeholders to play a role in shaping the future of dispute resolution. To date, there are at least 25 conferences scheduled around the world and the GPC Series will culminate in London on 6 July 2016.
For more information on the GPC Series, visit http://globalpoundconference.org/.
For more information on GPC Singapore 2016, visit http://singapore2016.globalpoundconference.org/.
*Please note that the PDF link represents the gathered data as it was represented in GPC Singapore and that the Global Committee has and will refine from time to time how the data is represented. To see the most current representation of the data gathered in GPC Singapore, one can go to http://singapore2016.globalpoundconference.org/post-conference/content-results#.V2eYWvRXeJI.
Prepared by :
Joel LEE (Chair, Singapore International Mediation Institute; Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore)
Dorcas QUEK ANDERSON (Lead Rapporteur for GPC Singapore, Singapore International Mediation Institute; Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Singapore Management University)
Marcus LIM (Executive Director, Singapore International Mediation Institute)
With thanks to student rapporteurs : Kelly ZHANG, Walter SEOW, JUN Jin Sei & LIM Shen-nen
June 2016