Patrick Dahm

That German-Singapore Lawyer

Category: Publications & Talks

Expenses, Not Damages

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On 26 August 2026

In Germany, Publications & Talks, Shipping & Maritime

In March 2026, I presen­ted a paper at the 23rd Inter­na­tion­al Con­gress of Mari­time Arbit­rat­ors (ICMA XXIII) in Singa­pore on recov­er­ing the cost of pre­vent­ing a loss from a con­trac­tu­al breach that has not yet happened. The paper has now been pub­lished, in expan­ded form, in the Ger­man trans­port law journ­al Trans­port­recht: ‘The Cost of Pre­ven­tion – Expense Recov­ery in Mari­time Logist­ics Under Ger­man Law, Cor­rectly Applied’, TranspR 2026, 296–302 (issue 7–8) (sub­scrip­tion required).

The article ‘The Cost of Prevention – Expense Recovery in Maritime Logistics Under German Law, Correctly Applied’ by Patrick Dahm, as printed in Transportrecht 2026, 296–302 (issue 7–8)

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Book Review: EU Sustainability Law and Global Supply Chains

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On 4 June 2026

In Books, Commercial & Distribution, Publications & Talks

My review of Adolf Peter’s book on EU sus­tain­ab­il­ity law and sup­ply chains has been pub­lished in the Asi­an Inter­na­tion­al Arbit­ra­tion Journ­al. I think it is worth your time, so I repro­duce it here.

Book cover of EU Sustainability Legislation and International Supply Chains by Adolf Peter, Routledge 2025

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Damage Prevention Costs in Maritime Logistics: German Law

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On 25 March 2026

In Germany, Publications & Talks, Shipping & Maritime, Singapore

I had a very good time present­ing a paper at the 23rd Inter­na­tion­al Con­gress of Mari­time Arbit­rat­ors (ICMA XXIII) yes­ter­day: ‘Reim­burse­ment of Dam­age Pre­ven­tion Costs in Mari­time Logist­ics in the Event of an Anti­cip­ated Breach of Duty Accord­ing to (Cor­rectly Applied) Ger­man Law’. For any­one inter­ested, I am shar­ing the full paper (PDF) in a slightly expan­ded ver­sion: one para­graph of exactly 99 words at the very end that I had to cut from the con­fer­ence ver­sion to meet the rig­or­ous word lim­it, plus Eng­lish trans­la­tions of the rel­ev­ant Ger­man stat­utory pro­vi­sions in the footnotes.

Dr Patrick Dahm at the podium presenting his paper on damage prevention costs in maritime logistics at ICMA XXIII, Singapore, March 2026

Dissertation Summarised

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On 5 December 2025

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks, Singapore

When my dis­ser­ta­tion came out late last year, a few col­leagues asked why a work so focused on Singa­pore, where Eng­lish is the lan­guage of the law, was writ­ten in Ger­man. Well, it was a Ger­man doc­tor­ate, plus the dis­ser­ta­tion was inten­ded as a con­tri­bu­tion to the debate on com­mer­cial courts in Ger­many. That’s why.

Still, they had a point, so I put togeth­er an Eng­lish sum­mary: ‘Should a Dis­pute Be Brought to the Singa­pore Inter­na­tion­al Com­mer­cial Court or to Arbitration?’

I’m pleased to share that it has now been pub­lished in this year’s Zeits­chrift für Zivil­prozess Inter­na­tion­al (ZZP Int (29) 2024, pp. 257 – 312). If the top­ic interests you, do have a look.

ZZPInt, Jahrbuch des Internationalen Zivilprozessrechts, volume 29 (2024) – on amazon.de

The Distribution Law of Singapore

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On 3 February 2025

In Books, Commercial & Distribution, Publications & Talks, Singapore

Hear ye, hear ye! The fifth edi­tion of Hand­buch Ver­triebs­recht (Hand­book of Dis­tri­bu­tion Law), edited by Mar­tinek, Semler and Flohr, has been pub­lished. It’s a tome of 3,155 (plus LXXVII) pages that once again provides a sys­tem­at­ic and detailed present­a­tion of this area of law, both nation­ally (from a Ger­man per­spect­ive) and inter­na­tion­ally. One of the new addi­tions from my pen is a chapter on Singa­pore, which deals com­pre­hens­ively with its com­mer­cial agency, author­ised deal­er, fran­chise and com­pet­i­tion laws.

Handbuch Vertriebsrecht, open at the Singapore chapter – at beck-shop.de

SICC or Arbitration?

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On 9 November 2024

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Books, Publications & Talks, Singapore

My doc­tor­al dis­ser­ta­tion has been pub­lished as an e‑book and in print. Its title trans­lates as ‘SICC or Arbit­ra­tion? A Com­par­is­on of Pro­ceed­ings in the Singa­pore Inter­na­tion­al Com­mer­cial Court with the Advant­ages and Dis­ad­vant­ages of Inter­na­tion­al Arbit­ra­tion Pro­ceed­ings’. It does what it says on the tin, so here’s just a bit of background.

My dissertation, SICC oder Schiedsgericht?, at Duncker & Humblot

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Arbitrators: Balancing Active Engagement and Party Autonomy

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On 21 October 2024

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks

I was back in Kuala Lum­pur for Asia ADR Week 2024 and an Oxford-style debate on the top­ic of ‘The Extent and Lim­it­a­tions of Arbit­rat­ors’ Dis­cre­tion­ary Powers’.

At the lectern during Debate 1, ‘The Extent and Limitations of Arbitrators’ Discretionary Powers’

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On the Diminishing Importance of Humanity in Arbitration

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On 30 July 2024

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks, Technology & Law

Last week­end the Asia ADR Sum­mit was held in Kuala Lum­pur. I had the hon­our and pleas­ure of par­ti­cip­at­ing in an Oxford-style debate on the top­ic: ‘This House believes that “human­ity” is dis­pens­able in arbit­ra­tion, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence will sup­plant arbit­rat­ors in the future’.

Here is my state­ment and my rebuttal.

Speaking at the lectern during the Oxford Style Debate, Asia ADR Summit 2024

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Courts and Tribunals and the Amicable Settlement of Disputes in Singapore

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On 22 September 2023

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks, Singapore

May courts or arbit­ral tribunals engage in the amic­able set­tle­ment of dis­putes between parties? More spe­cific­ally, may a Singa­pore court or arbit­ral tribunal act­ively do so? What do the inquis­it­ori­al pro­cesses men­tioned in the law have to do with it?

I have set out my thoughts in an art­icle that the Ger­man Arbit­ra­tion Journ­al (Schieds­VZ) has just pub­lished in its September/October 2023 issue.

Sup­ple­ment­al: Kluwer Arbit­ra­tion Blog has pub­lished a sum­mary of the article.

The galley proofs of my article ‘On the Powers of Courts and Arbitral Tribunals in the Amicable Settlement of Disputes by the Parties: A Look at Singapore and Selected Other Countries’. Inquisitorial processes are the key.

Singapore’s New Law on Electronic Bills of Lading

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On 24 May 2021

In Publications & Talks, Shipping & Maritime, Singapore, Technology & Law

Peking, a steel-hulled four-masted barque, was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying iron-hulled sailing ships. She probably carried many bills of lading.
New tech­no­logy on the horizon

Singa­pore has adop­ted the UNCITRAL Mod­el Law on Elec­tron­ic Trans­fer­able Records, in a bid to get elec­tron­ic bills of lad­ing (eBOL) off the ground after pre­vi­ous efforts failed. The Singa­pore Cham­ber of Mari­time Arbit­ra­tion has pub­lished the ori­gin­al Eng­lish ver­sion of my art­icle on the new law. Trans­port­recht, the trans­port­a­tion law journ­al, has pub­lished the Ger­man ver­sion.

On Arbitration, Football and Vacuum-Cleaning Robots

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On 7 December 2018

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks, Technology & Law

The Singa­pore Insti­tute of Arbit­rat­ors invited me to debate the fol­low­ing motion: ‘This House Believes That Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence Will Have Replaced Arbit­rat­ors with­in Twenty-Five Years’. In short: can – will – algorithms replace arbit­rat­ors with­in a generation?

We were debat­ing this last night. Here are my open­ing and clos­ing statements.

Group picture of the debaters, the judges and the moderator, all arbitration practitioners

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The Arts and the Law in Singapore

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On 7 February 2018

In Art, Law, Publications & Talks, Singapore

Last Fri­day we were cel­eb­rat­ing the offi­cial open­ing of our new office, arts and enter­tain­ment law firm that we are. This is the speech I gave before the party took off.

Group picture with Patrick Dahm and party guests

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Singapore to Ratify Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements

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On 10 May 2016

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks, Singapore

Here’s my piece on Singa­pore’s rat­i­fic­a­tion of this Con­ven­tion on Peter Ber­t’s dis­pute res­ol­u­tion blog.

The National Coat of Arms of Singapore
The Supreme Court of Singapore

Singapurischer Internationaler Handelsgerichtshof eröffnet

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On 7 January 2015

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Germany, Publications & Talks, Singapore

Anfang 2015 wurde der Singapur­ische Inter­na­tionale Han­dels­gericht­shof (Singa­pore Inter­na­tion­al Com­mer­cial Court oder SICC) eröffnet. Das Gericht ist als Teil des singapur­ischen Supreme Court für inter­na­tionale Han­dels­sachen zuständig und ver­eint schiedsgericht­liche und gericht­liche Ele­mente. Singapur will dam­it seine Pos­i­tion als inter­na­tionales Streit­sch­lich­tung­szen­trum ausbauen.

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‘Language’ Difficulties between Civil Law and Common Law

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On 28 November 2014

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks

Parties to a leg­al dis­pute may believe they under­stand each other’s legalese or the leg­al ‘etiquette’ applic­able. When really they don’t. This may hap­pen when a party from a civil law jur­is­dic­tion sets foot in a com­mon law envir­on­ment, or vice versa. In inter­na­tion­al arbit­ra­tion pro­ceed­ings, for example.

Appar­ently the High Court of Singa­pore had to decide a case just like this.

Court scene: a barrister (cross-)examining a witness

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A Grain of Civil Law – Some (Not So) New Chords for the International Arbitration Jazz

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On 1 October 2014

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks

Scene in Italy: group of children free-riding the tram
Faster, cheap­er

Inter­na­tion­al arbit­ra­tion has a prob­lem: pro­ceed­ings that take too long and are too expens­ive. To help solve this we should com­bine the best aspects of civil law and com­mon law pro­ced­ure better.

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The Midnight Clause in International Arbitration

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On 18 June 2014

In Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Publications & Talks

This is my speech at the In-house Con­gress in Jakarta, Indone­sia, on 23 April 2014. It was on why it’s import­ant your com­mer­cial con­tracts con­tain an arbit­ra­tion clause that works well.

Full moon at midnight

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