More than 60 participants from 16 courts and jurisdictions including Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China and Singapore, have completed the inaugural Masterclass Programme for Commercial Judges in Asia held at the Judicial Training Centre of the Supreme Court of Indonesia in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.
Held from 9 to 12 September 2024, the Masterclass was a four-day intensive course jointly organised by the Judicial Training Centre and the Singapore Judicial College, covering key topics in commercial law that are of concern to many judiciaries; namely technology and law, arbitration, cross-border insolvency, shipping and maritime law, and intellectual property.
The idea for a Masterclass was first seeded in November 2023 when Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon of Singapore visited the Judicial Training Centre of the Supreme Court of Indonesia.
These plans crystallised further when Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia, Prof Dr Muhammad Syarifuddin met with Chief Justice Menon in February this year. The Chief Justices jointly invited jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region to nominate participants for the Masterclass, which is intended for High Court judges with two to three years of experience.
The faculty for the Masterclass comprised eminent international commercial judges who are experts in their respective fields. Speakers and facilitators included Justice I Gusti Agung Sumanatha, Justice Syamsul Marif and Justice Nani Indrawati (Indonesia), Chief Justice Menon, Justice Aedit Abdullah, Justice Philip Jeyaretnam, Justice Kannan Ramesh, Justice S Mohan, Justice Dedar Singh Gill (Singapore), Justice James Allsop (Singapore International Commercial Court), Chief Justice (Ret) Geoffrey Ma (Hong Kong SAR), Justice David Goddard (New Zealand), Justice Dai Yiting (China) and Prof Jansen Calamita from the National University of Singapore.
In his keynote address, Chief Justice Menon outlined how changes affecting core commercial areas were transforming the realities of commercial law and practice, and offered a vision of convergence between judiciaries across the Asia-Pacific region in key commercial areas, which could assist our legal systems in managing these changes.
He also highlighted the “unique value proposition” of the Masterclass and four distinctive features that made it an important platform for judicial education and exchange in the Asia-Pacific region; namely its scope, its methodology, its participants and the network that it aims to establish.
The role of judges in economic growth becomes critical. Chief Justice Syarifuddin addressed that the demands on commercial courts have grown exponentially, driven by the complexities of cross-border trade, international contracts, and global financial systems. “The decisions we make as judges can have far-reaching implications, influencing economic activity and the confidence of international investors in our legal systems”.
