Shouyu is a PhD Student on the Nash Research Scholarship at the Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, King's College London (since October 2019). He is also partly-funded by the Society of Construction Law, on a Frances Paterson Scholarship. Concurrently, he is a Research Fellow at the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy (SIDRA), Singapore Management University, and a Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the co-author of the leading academic commentary on the Singapore Convention (The Singapore Convention on Mediation: A Commentary, Wolters Kluwer, 2019 and 2022), now published in its second edition. He is completing his doctoral thesis on the limitations of party autonomy underlying the enforcement of forum selection agreements in commercial contracts. Shouyu also researches and publishes his papers on private international law and cross-border ADR mechanisms. One of his papers, received a Commendation for the 2020 Society of Construction Law (UK) Hudson Prize. Shouyu continues to research and write extensively on the Singapore Convention on Mediation and ADR in Singapore. His research output has contributed significantly to the development of Singapore and international ADR law and policy.

PhD Research

Titled 'The limits of party autonomy in enforcing forum selection clauses: A transnational approach', Shouyu's thesis engages in a conflict of laws debate over how courts should balance party autonomy against other discernible policy-based considerations and mandatory rules in disputes over jurisdictional matters, conceived in the commercial context of cross-border disputes. It does not consider dispute resolution provisions which may be vitiated by reasons of incapacity, non est factum, mistake, and other defences which may excuse commercial parties from performing, owing to a defect in the voluntariness of their consent to be bound by a dispute resolution provision found in a commercial contract they entered. The research examines international commercial contracts. It will identify the balance (including the specific conditions under which limits to party autonomy may be found) and proposes to characterise this rule as a transnational principle, for the purposes of cross-border commercial dispute resolution. With respect to the enforcement of forum selection agreements (including choice of court, arbitration and ADR agreements), it proposes a correction of the views which are prevalent in practice, to ensure that the benefits of enforcing party autonomy in the context of commercial dispute resolution (such as the protection of commercial certainty and predictability) is enjoyed by all parties involved in the transaction.

Supervisors

First Supervisor: Professor Renato Nazzini

Second Supervisor: Dr Manuel Penades Fons

Research Interests

• Private International Law
• International Commercial Arbitration
• Mediation and ADR
• Commercial Law

Teaching

• The Law of Trusts
• International Commercial Law