Swee Yen Koh SC

Practice Areas

Koh Swee Yen, Senior Counsel, is the Head of the International Arbitration Practice and a Partner in the Commercial & Corporate Disputes and Commodities & International Trade Practices.

Her practice has a particular focus on complex, high-value and multi-jurisdictional disputes involving asset recovery, commodities, energy, fraud, infrastructure, international trade, joint ventures, transport and technology. She regularly appears before the Singapore Courts (including the Singapore International Commercial Court) and in international commercial and investment arbitrations under the major institutional rules, including ICSID, ICC, ICDR, LCIA, SIAC, and UNCITRAL.

Professional Memberships

Swee Yen is the Co-Chair of the IPBA Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Committee, and a member of the ICCA-ASIL Task Force on Damages. She was the former Vice-Chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee, and was also on the Editorial Board of the ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin. She is currently a Board member of the Swiss Arbitration Association, and a member of the LCIA Asia Pacific Users’ Council. She has sat as an arbitrator in HKIAC, ICC, LCIA and SIAC administered arbitrations, and is on the Panel of Arbitrators of the AIAC, BICAM, BAC/BIAC, HKIAC, KCAB and SIAC. She is a member of the Governing Board for the Centre of International Law, NUS, and the President of the Singapore branch of the International Law Association. She has also been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy.

Swee Yen has been a member of the Rules of Court Working Party since 2005, and was also a member of the Civil Justice Commission whose work culminated in the promulgation of the new Rules of Court 2021 which seeks to effect transformative changes to the litigation process in Singapore.

She is appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs as a member of the Public Entertainment Appeal Board, Criminal Law Advisory Committee (Hearing), Citizenship Committee of Inquiry and is also a member of the Gambling Regulatory Authority's Patron Dispute Committee.

Publications

Swee Yen has various publications, in particular on civil procedure, enforcement of judgments and awards, international commercial and investment arbitration and litigation. Her publications include:

- The Proposed Reforms to the English Arbitration Act 1996: A Singapore Perspective’ Singapore Arbitration Journal (2023)

- Chambers’ Litigation 2024 Global Practice Guide – Singapore Chapter (Trends and Developments)

- International Comparative Legal Guide – Investor-State Arbitration 2024 (Singapore Chapter)

- The Legal 500 Country Comparative Guide Singapore: Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (2023)

- The Legal 500 Country Comparative Guide Singapore: International Arbitration (2023)

- Global Arbitration Review (GAR) The Guide to Investment Treaty Protection and Enforcement; 2nd edition - Accessing Investment Treaty Protection: The Investor's Perspective (2023)

- Provisional and Emergency Measures in International Arbitration (Edward Elgar Publishing) (2023)

- The Investment Treaty Arbitration Review: Objections of Manifest Lack of Legal Merit of Claims: Arbitration Rule 41(5) Chapter (8th Edition) (The Law Reviews) (2023)

- Singapore Rules of Court: A Practice Guide, 2023 Ed (Singapore Academy of Law Publishing)

- ICSID Rules and Regulations 2022: Article by Article Commentary (CH Beck)

- Arbitration and Corruption: Duty or Right of Arbitrators to Report Suspicion of Corruption to Authorities, 2021 (Wolters Kluwer)

- Getting the Deal Through: Investment Treaty Arbitration 2021 – Singapore Chapter (Lexology)

- Practical Insights: Fraud and Corruption in International Arbitration, 2021 (Wolters Kluwer)

- The Future of Investment Treaty Arbitration in the EU: Intra-EU BITs, the Energy Charter Treaty, and the Multilateral Investment - Arbitration, Public Policy and Enforcement after Achmea: A perspective from Singapore, Chapter 11, 2020 (Wolters Kluwer)

- International Arbitration: In the Age of Technological Revolution, 2020 (Volume 1) (Lumen Juris)

- International Arbitration Comparative Guide 2020 – Singapore Chapter (Mondaq)

- Lye Lin Heng's Landlord and Tenant Law in Singapore, 2020 (2nd Edition) (LexisNexis)

- The Legal 500 & The In-House Lawyer Hot Topic – Singapore: International Arbitration (4th Edition)

- International Arbitration in the Energy Sector 2018: Energy Investor State Disputes in Asia (Oxford University Press)

- European International Arbitration Review, 2017: The Incidence of Iura Novit Arbiter in Singapore Arbitration Law - Volume 6:1 (JurisNet, LLC)

- The Use of Emergency Arbitrators in Investment Treaty Arbitration: ICSID Review - Foreign Investment Law Journal, 2016 (Oxford University Press)

- Singapore Civil Procedure: Volume I, Chapter 29: Interlocutory Injunctions, Interim Preservation of Property, Interim Payments; Volume II: Arbitration Act and International Arbitration Act (Sweet & Maxwell)

- Atkin's Court Forms (Singapore): Defamation (LexisNexis)

- The Practice of Law, 2016 (LexisNexis)