Hong Kong – Code of Practice for Third Party Funding Of Arbitration Issued On 7 December 2018.

 

18 December, 2018

 

 

The Arbitration and Mediation Legislation (Third Party Funding) (Amendment) Ordinance 2017 (Amendment Ordinance) amends the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609) and the Mediation Ordinance (Cap 620) to allow third party funding of arbitrations and mediations respectively. Our previous article details the provisions of the Amendment Ordinance.  

 

The Amendment Ordinance came into operation on 23 June 2017, except for certain provisions, pending the putting into place of a code of conduct setting out the practices and standards with which third party funders will ordinarily be expected to comply, as explained in our previous article.

 

A code of conduct (called Code of Practice for Third Party Funding of Arbitration) has now been issued (on 7 December 2018).   A notice was also gazetted the same day, appointing 1 February 2019, as the date on which the new Arbitration Ordinance provisions come into operation. The commencement of the New Mediation Ordinance provisions has been deferred, pending further discussions between the Department of Justice and mediation community and relevant shareholders on certain issues concerning third party funding of mediation.