Introduction

History was made when the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Mediation and International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation 2018 (“Model Law 2018”) was concurrently developed alongside the Singapore Convention, marking the first time in the course of UNCITRAL’s work that two forms of instruments were successfully concluded in parallel. The Model Law 2018 was adopted alongside the finalisation of the Singapore Convention text at the fifty-first UNCITRAL Commission session, which came to a close in July 2018. The Commission also recommended that all States give favourable consideration to the enactment of the Model Law 2018 when they enact or revise their laws, in view of the desirability of uniformity of the law of dispute settlement procedures and the specific needs of international commercial mediation practice. The contents of the two instruments are complementary, and as noted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, were developed simultaneously to accommodate the varying levels of experience with mediation in different jurisdictions, and to provide States with consistent standards on the cross-border enforcement of international settlement agreements resulting from mediation.

To date, legislation based on the Model Law has been adopted in up to 33 states, totalling 46 jurisdictions*.

Please inform the UNCITRAL Secretariat of draft legislation to enact the Model Law.

*This figure is based on states that have reported adoption to UNCITRAL. The figure could well be higher than reported.