He was appointed to the role at the CACJ’s recently concluded 12th meeting
Sundaresh Menon, Singapore’s chief justice, will be the new chair of the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices following an election held at the council’s 12th meeting.
The Singapore Supreme Court hosted the meeting held on November 15. Menon’s appointment took place at the opening of the meeting.
The Council members discussed the potential release of an ASEAN memorandum of guidance for ASEAN judiciaries to recognise and enforce foreign money judgments. They also debated simplifying the Protocol on Verification Procedure to Authenticate Court Orders Within ASEAN.
The CACJ spoke on supporting and promoting judicial education and training, such as establishing new courses, e-learning modules, and an ASEAN Judicial Fellows Programme. It also discussed broadening judicial knowledge exchanges on issues involving human trafficking cases’ adjudication.
The council talked about generating online resources and databases for issues such as climate justice and legal procedures in cross-border proceedings related to children on the ASEAN Judiciaries Portal. Moreover, it discussed seeking potential judicial collaboration opportunities with the judiciaries of Australia, the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.
The CACJ discussed crafting model frameworks between ASEAN courts that focus on recognition and relief mechanisms in insolvency matters, as well as frameworks concentrating on alternative dispute resolution in cross-border insolvency cases. These frameworks are in addition to the Model Framework for Communication and Cooperation between ASEAN Courts in Cross-Border Insolvency Proceedings.
The council also called for experience sharing on intellectual property concerns such as IP piracy, technical complexities in patent cases, cross-border infringement, and challenges related to new tech like AI. It pitched a rotational hosting system for ASEAN Law Association and CACJ meetings that switched between countries that could and were willing to host twin meetings.
The CACJ discussed setting a Meeting on Digital and Virtual Assets concentrating on the recurrent and urgent issue of the nature and status of digital and virtual assets – an issue in court cases across ASEAN jurisdictions.
A delegation from Timor-Leste joined the meeting to observe; the country became the 11th ASEAN member in October. At the end of the meeting, the chief justices and heads of delegations present signed the Singapore Declaration.
ASEAN Insolvency Judges held its second standing meeting as the 12th CACJ meeting was ongoing. The inaugural meetings of ASEAN Insolvency and Intellectual Property Judges and Practitioners were held on November 14.
The Seminar on International Disputes took place on November 13; the event was organized by the CACJ in partnership with the Singapore International Commercial Court and the Singapore Academy of Law. Associate professor Simon Tay moderated a panel discussion at the Seminar on Transnational Practice of Law in ASEAN, which was also co-organized by the CACJ, on November 14.
