“Access to Justice in the Creative Economy” Symposium

On Wednesday 6 August 2025, the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business (EWBCLB) and the Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL) co-organised a roundtable symposium at the Bukit Timah Campus of NUS Law titled “Access to Justice in the Creative Economy”. The session was convened by Professor David Tan (NUS Law) and Professor Graeme Austin (Victoria University of Wellington/Melbourne).

Comprising academics, policymakers and practitioners, the symposium explored initiatives directed at achieving just, cost-effective, efficient, and fair resolutions of disputes about rights in creative works and products. Its key focus was on access to justice in the global creative economy, an increasingly important topic, as different nations have developed new initiatives in dispute resolution in this field.

Representatives from institutions such as the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) and the WIPO Arbitration & Mediation Center presented their different perspectives at this one-day event. Other participants include Professor Kristelia Garcia (Georgetown), Professor Emily Hudson (Oxford), Asst Professor Mark McLaughlin (SMU), Dr Fady Aoun (Sydney), Dr Maxence Rivoire (King’s College London), Dr Joshua Yuvaraj (Auckland).

Laws, especially intellectual property legislation, around the world are increasing in sophistication as domestic, regional, and international laws respond to the challenges of new technologies. But the promises of these measures will not be realised without appropriate and accessible systems for the resolution of disputes, such as mediation and arbitration. Speakers discussed and debated the different contributions that public initiatives and private ordering strategies can make to enhancing access to justice in the creative economies. From a systemic perspective, the access to justice questions explored in this conference concern the contributions domestic legal systems can make to the flourishing of the creative sector, and, ultimately, to the international legal order.

Papers presented at the symposium will be revised for an edited book project.