Recognition by Any Other Name: Article 3 of the Singapore Convention on Mediation

The heart of the Singapore Convention is contained in its third article. Other parts of the treaty's text, such as Article 1 (addressing the scope of the Convention), consumed more hours of the negotiations, and Article 5 (addressing grounds for refusal) will likely be the focus of most of the eventual litigation regarding the Convention's application to particular disputes. Moreover, most of the Convention's fifteen other articles are longer and more detailed than Article 3. Yet only Article 3 imposes affirmative obligations on Parties to the Convention.

All other articles merely play supporting roles, such as placing boundaries on the Convention's application, setting forth procedural rules or exceptions, and providing the mechanics for the Convention to operate as a treaty. In other words, all the other articles are used to determine whether and how the Article 3 obligations apply, but only Article 3 itself imposes substantive duties on states that join the Convention.