Fountain Court is pleased to announce that the winner of the Christopher Bathurst Prize 2023 is Adam Ho.  Adam is an associate at Rajah & Tann in Singapore. The Prize was awarded to him at the Christopher Bathurst Reception on 5 September. Nik Yeo of Fountain Court and Paul Neo, the Chief Operating Officer of Singapore Academy of Law, presented the Prize.

It is the fourteenth year that Chambers has awarded the prize in memory of the late Christopher Bathurst QC (Viscount Bledisloe), who as a member of Fountain Court developed a substantial practice in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, while also being a leading practitioner at the Commercial Bar in London. Christopher served as Head of Chambers between 1989-1994. The prize was again kindly supported by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Participants were asked to submit an essay of not more than 3,500 words. The competition question and winning essay can be found here.

Entrants were judged on a variety of criteria, namely originality, critical analysis, succinctness, clarity, persuasiveness and pragmatism. The judges were Stephen Moriarty KC of Fountain Court, Siraj Omar SC of Drew & Napier and Dr Sandra Booysen, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. Fountain Court Chambers is grateful for their support and commitment to the prize.

The prize is an all-expense-paid two-week internship at Fountain Court in London. We hope to welcome Adam to London in 2024.

Prior to the Prize-Giving, the Christopher Bathurst Webinar was held which examined some of the questions raised by this year’s problem. This focussed on: ‘Arbitrability: Can Jurisdictions Police the Public Policy of Other Jurisdictions?’. The Panel discussed the recent case of Anupam Mittal v Westbridge Ventures II Investment Holdings [2023] SGCA 1 in the Court of Appeal in Singapore and explored to what extent there was or could be a harmonised approach between different jurisdictions on the issue of arbitrability.  Adopting a comparative law approach, the panellists included Yuet Min Foo (Singapore), Gaurav Pachnanda SA (India), Professor Luca G Radicati di Brozolo (Italy) and Nik Yeo (UK) were on the Panel, moderated by Professor Darius Chan. 

The Reception was held at Empress at the Asian Civilisation Museum and the guests included many old and new friends of Fountain Court, spanning the legal profession in Singapore and the Pan-Asia region. The delegation from Chambers included Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, Nik Yeo, Andrew Pullen, Alex Taylor (Senior Clerk) and Caroline McConnon (Practice Manager, Asia). They were joined by four of our door tenants: Arvind Datar SA, Zal Andhyarujina SA and Gaurav Pachnanda SA from India and Professor Darius Chan who is based in Singapore.