What We Know, We Don’t Know About Macao’s Arbitration Framework and the Way Forward

Abstract

Increasing attention has been drawn recently to the arbitration community after the long-waited call for reform in arbitration regime back in 1996, the new Macao Arbitration Law has finally come into force on 4 May 2020. Still a phenomenon today, Macao SAR is not regarded as a popular destination for ar-bitration given the very strong competitions of “international” arbitral institutions surrounded in the South-East Asia Region, like Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, and Mainland China, but also probably due to its “imperfect” arbitration system that Macao SAR that was deeply-rooted in the past. In response to the growth of international commercial arbitration cases worldwide, Macao SAR has tried hard to ameliorate in a number of ways without giving up its share in the arbitration market. In-deed, one good example is the reform of the latest Macao Arbitration Law in 2019. However, this may not serve as a “panacea” to bring any instant changes in arbitration, and promotion of Macao SAR as a “user-friendly” seat for arbitration may require time and joint effort from every stakeholder to make that happen. This paper will revisit the evolution of the Macao’s arbitration system and its latest development, the potential challenges that pose to Macao SAR, a brief introduction of local arbit-ral institutions, as well as the likely concerns that the arbitral institutions and arbitration users may face when it comes to the choice for the place of arbitration.