Jurisdiction: law applicable to an arbitration clause

In BCY v BCZ [2016] SGHC 249 the question before Steven Chong J in the High Court of Singapore was whether the parties had entered into an arbitration agreement independently of negotiations for a sale and purchase agreement to which the arbitration provisions were intended to relate.

The most important question considered by the court was whether the putative applicable law, by which the validity of the arbitration clause was to be tested, followed the express choice of New York law in the sale and purchase agreement or the express choice of Singapore as the seat of the arbitration. The court, following English authority, opted for the former approach.