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12th Meeting of the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices

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Posted on : 24 November 2025

The 12th Meeting of the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (CACJ), hosted by the Supreme Court of Singapore, took place on 15 November 2025. The Supreme Court of Singapore also hosted a Welcome Reception for Delegates on 13 November 2025, a Gala Dinner on 14 November 2025 and a Dinner for CACJ Members and Nominated Representatives on 15 November 2025.  

In conjunction with the 12th CACJ Meeting, the 2nd Standing Meeting of ASEAN Insolvency Judges, and the Inaugural Meetings of ASEAN Insolvency and Intellectual Property Judges and Practitioners took place on 14 November 2025. The CACJ also co-organised two separate events on the sidelines of the 12th CACJ Meeting. The Seminar on International Disputes, organised together with the Singapore International Commercial Court and the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL), was held on 13 November 2025. The Seminar on Transnational Practice of Law in ASEAN, which included a panel discussion moderated by Associate Professor Simon Tay, was held on 14 November 2025.

The Honourable the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, the Chief Justice of Singapore, was elected as Chair of the CACJ at the opening of the 12th CACJ Meeting. This year, the CACJ welcomed a delegation from Timor-Leste as observers, following the country’s accession as ASEAN’s 11th member in October 2025. At the meeting, the CACJ engaged in discussions on a wide range of issues such as:

  1. Publishing an ASEAN Memorandum of Guidance on how ASEAN judiciaries recognise and enforce foreign money judgments;
  2. Creating a Simplified Protocol on Verification Procedure to Authenticate Court Orders Within ASEAN;
  3. Supporting and promoting judicial education and training, including the development of new courses and e-learning modules and the establishment of an ASEAN Judicial Fellows Programme;  
  4. Expanding judicial knowledge exchanges on issues relating to the adjudication of human trafficking cases;
  5. Developing online resources and databases regarding issues such as climate justice and legal procedures in cross-border proceedings involving children on the ASEAN Judiciaries Portal;
  6. Exploring with the judiciaries of Australia, the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea on potential areas for judicial collaboration with the CACJ;
  7. Developing model frameworks between ASEAN courts for recognition and relief mechanisms in insolvency matters, and alternative dispute resolution in cross-border insolvency cases, in addition to the Model Framework for Communication and Cooperation between ASEAN Courts in Cross-Border Insolvency Proceedings;
  8. The sharing of experiences in various intellectual property (IP) issues, including IP piracy, technical complexities in patent cases, cross-border infringement, and challenges posed by new technologies such as AI;
  9. Proposing a rotational hosting system for ASEAN Law Association and CACJ meetings, alternating between countries capable and willing to host twin meetings; and
  10.  Convening a Meeting on Digital and Virtual Assets to address the recurrent and urgent issue of the nature and status of digital and virtual assets, which has been encountered in various court cases across ASEAN jurisdictions.

All Chief Justices and Heads of Delegations in attendance signed the Singapore Declaration at the close of the meeting, maintaining the tradition of recording CACJ decisions through publicly available declarations since 2015: Link here

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