ABLI successfully concludes its ten-year anniversary conference

ABLI is proud to successfully conclude its ten-year anniversary conference Bridging Laws for Business – A Decade Advancing Trade, Technology and Trust on August 26, 2026 in Shangri-La Hotel as part of the 2026 Singapore Convention Week.

The Conference commenced with the Honourable the Chief Justice of Singapore Sundaresh Menon giving his keynote address. The Chief Justice recounted the background of ABLI’s establishment, its achievements over the past decade, the enduring importance of legal convergence despite changes in the external environment, and the vision for ABLI going forward.

This speech was followed by the speech given by Dr Christophe Bernasconi, Secretary-General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) where he mentioned the solid track record of collaboration between ABLI and HCCH, as well as HCCH’s efforts over the years to promote harmonization in private international law globally. The Secretary-General also expressed gratitude to the partnership led by the Chief Justice during his tenure and congratulated His Honour on his well-deserved retirement next February.

The Conference then moved onto the first panel discussion titled the Role of the HCCH 2005 Choice of Court Convention in Effective Transnational Access to Justice. The Secretary-General was joined by the other panelists Justice David Goddard KC of the Singapore International Commercial Court, Delphia Lim, Director of the International Legal Division of Singapore’s Ministry of Law and Colin Seow, Managing Partner of Colin Seow Chambers in the session moderated by Associate Professor Adeline Chong of the Singapore Management University. The panel explored both the Choice of Court Convention and its sister convention, the HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention, how mediation, arbitration and litigation complement each other in the dispute resolution landscape, the reasons behind Singapore’s decision to join the Choice of Court Convention when the number of signatories was still small, etc. The panel ended with a call for more nations to consider joining either or both of the Conventions.

The second half of the Conference started with a pre-recorded video presentation by Dr Gérardine Goh Escolar, Deputy Secretary General of the HCCH, on Beyond the Token: Private International Law and the Legal Architecture of Digitally Mediated Markets. The presentation nicely led to the second panel discussion titled A “Cradle to grave” Review of Cryptoassets Disputes in ASEAN. Panelists Paul Papon Charoenpao, Managing Partner of PDLegal Thailand, Wendy Lin, Partner of WongPartnership LLP, Pham Viet Tuan, Partner of Indochine Counsel, and Dewi Savitri Reni (Vitri), Partner of SSEK Law Firm, each spoke about their own jurisdiction of Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia in a session that was both insightful and interesting as moderated by Sapna Jhangiani KC of Blackstone Chambers. The panel focused on the key aspects of a cryptoasset dispute lifecycle, from valuation, to preservation, to tracing and finally enforcement, and discussed practical issues such as the utility of common law relief such as injunction in civil law jurisdictions.

ABLI is delighted to see both the strong turnout of attendees from 19 jurisdictions, as well as active engagement among those present. It is heartening to know that the Conference has, as its name suggests, served as a bridge to bring different jurisdictions together, different expertise in the legal community together, and even different modes of attendance and forms of presentation together.

We look forward to working with existing and new partners to advance ABLI’s work going forward.