The Singapore Academy of Law is organising a conference to take place in Singapore on 29 and 30 June. It is called Technology Law Conference 2015: the Future of Money and Data.

Its theme is that technology offers both utopian and dystopian positions in relation to data and money, with the benefits of greater access balanced by fears of “digital catastrophe and virtual nightmare” thanks to privacy breaches, identity theft and other symptoms of financial vulnerability.

I took part in the last big international event organised by the Singapore Academy of Law in 2011. It was one of the most interesting events I have attended and one which made it clear that Singapore was ambitious to attract international dispute resolution business. Much has happened since then, not least the development of the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC).

This year I am chairman of a judicial panel on data protection and data analytics in discovery. The panel comprises the Honourable Judge David Harvey of the District Court in New Zealand, the Honourable Justice Lee Sieu Kin of the Supreme Court of Singapore, and US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck of the Southern District of New York.

The conference website is here, including the full programme and information for those interested in sponsoring the event. There is also a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page.

The quality and thoughtfulness of this event shows full cooperation between judiciary, legal learning resources and the state in a way which reflects the continuing ambitions of Singapore. You may care to contrast this with the position of the UK, once the unchallenged leader for International disputes. It is inconceivable that a badly-led and incompetent shambles like the UK’s Ministry of Justice could mount such an event without drawing down the derision of those who have to use its courts.

I am very much looking forward to participating in this event. I have not been to Singapore for a while, and it is time to catch up with all the interesting legal developments there.