Security for Costs in International Arbitration

Cameron Ford OAM is an arbitrator, barrister and mediator based in Singapore. He completed his PhD in 2022 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2023 for services to law. He has been a partner in the international dispute resolution group of Squire Patton Boggs, Singapore, senior corporate counsel with Rio Tinto in Singapore, a partner in a law firm and a barrister at the independent Bar in Australia, practising in commercial and administrative litigation. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. He is on the arbitration panels of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Asian International Centre for Arbitration, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the Beijing Arbitration Commission, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, and the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, as well as serving as arbitrator in a number of arbitrations.

"As an arbitrator, I have long worried about security for costs applications. In today’s financial climate, a tribunal might inadvertently stifle a legitimate claim by ordering security. But if the tribunal refuses security, will that be unfair to an applicant? Tribunals often suspect that security applications are deployed tactically. One also regularly hears that civil law tribunals rarely order security, while common law tribunals do so routinely. But how much of all that is true and how much only folklore? The CIArb Guidelines on Applications for Security for Costs posits that security should be refused where an applicant knew or ought to have known at the time of contracting that there could be difficulty in enforcing an award against a counterparty. The difficulty would merely be a normal commercial risk arising out of the parties’ business relationship and not a justification for security. But is the view persuasive? Dr. Cameron Ford’s monograph examines these [and] many [other] practical issues relating to security for costs. The work is brisk, but rigorous and exhaustive in its analysis. Reading it has given me greater confidence in handling applications for security. I highly recommend the book."Professor Anselmo Reyes, University of Hong Kong; International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court, Hong Kong

• 1 Introduction to the controversy 2 The evolution and nature of security for costs 3 Power and proof 4 Historical approaches to secuirty for costs in arbitration 5 Total circumstances factors 6 The mechanics 7 Party consent and security for costs 8 Party autonomy, procedural fairness, and the nature of arbitration 9 Utility of security for costs in interational commercial arbitration 10 Security for costs in international investment arbitration