The new Rules of Court (ROC 2021) in Singapore were published on December 1, 2021 and will come into force on April 1, 2022
The new Civil Procedure Rules for the General Division of the High Court of Singapore, excluding the Singapore Court of International Trade, (ROC 2021) were published on December 1, 2021 and will come into force on April 1, 2022.
The new regime represents the first major overhaul of the civil justice system in Singapore since the 1990s. The ROC 2021 is the result of a collective effort that began with the establishment of the Civil Justice Commission (CJC), in January 2015 , and the Civil Justice Review Committee (CJRC), in May 2016.
Subsequently, the CJC and the CJRC each published separate reports containing proposals for reforming Singapore’s civil litigation practices.1 In late October 2018, a public consultation was held to receive feedback on the two committees’ proposals. The publication of the response to public comments on the CJC and CJRC recommendations in June 2021 was the penultimate step before the publication of the 2021 CAR.
The ROC 2021 aims to improve various aspects of civil procedure in Singapore by streamlining the litigation process and making hearings faster and more cost-effective. Various online publications, including an entry in the January 2022 article in the Official Journalhave sought to outline and comment on some of the major changes that will be coming as part of CAR 2021.
Essentially, their aim has been to provide a broad overview of the main developments under the new civil justice regime. This entry, however, has a much narrower focus. In particular, it aims to examine the impact of the new procedural rules on the approach of Singapore courts to assuming jurisdiction over overseas-based defendants (the service jurisdiction) in private international law disputes. Read more
Source: Ardavan Arzandeh | The Official Gazette of Singapore