Challenges to arbitration awards: jurisdiction and serious irregularity

In Singapore, as in England, there is the right to challenge an arbitration award only where the tribunal has acted without jurisdiction or where it has been guilty of serious irregularity in the proceedings. Errors of law are not appealable at all in international arbitrations in Singapore, and are appealable in England only with the permission of the court. That restriction means that a party wishing to challenge an award may be tempted to try to classify what is, in effect, a substantive challenge as one based on jurisdiction or procedure.

In BTN and BTO v BTP and BTQ [2019] SGHC 212, Belinda Ang Saw Ean J in the Singapore High Court regarded the challenge before her as precisely one of that type.