More than one-third of all international arbitration cases filed these recent years have involved issues of non-signatories, groups of companies or groups of contracts. The scenarios are diverse, but they frequently involve one of the following questions: is it possible to join and decide together in one arbitral procedure all the disputes which arise from the various contracts relating to the same project or to decide under the arbitration clause contained in one contract disputes arising under one or more related agreements; or in the context of a group of companies, whether one or more entities which belong to the group may be properly considered to be parties to the arbitration agreement even though they have not signed formally the contract containing the arbitration clause. The present article analyses published decisions rendered on these issues in selected Asian countries, namely, Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan.
Journal of International Arbitration