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The Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Workshop on the effective enforcement of business contracts and efficient resolution of business disputes through the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention will take place on Tuesday 1 September 2015 in Cebu, the Philippines, on the margins of the APEC Senior Officials Meetings. The Workshop is organised by the Department of Justice of Hong Kong, China, in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Regional Office of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) and the UNCITRAL Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific.

Further to the success of the APEC Workshop held in 2014 in Beijing, China, on the Ease of Doing Business through Hague Conventions, the Cebu Workshop will provide an opportunity for APEC economies to enhance their understanding of the Hague Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements (Choice of Court Convention). The Convention, which will enter into force on 1 October 2015, provides legal certainty and predictability in relation to the use of choice of court clauses in business-to-business contracts, thereby facilitating resolution of business disputes. This Convention may thus be considered by APEC and any other economies as an important tool to strengthen their legal framework applicable to cross-border trade and commerce and to attract foreign investment.

Another international instrument, the newly adopted Principles on Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts (Hague Principles), will also be presented at the Cebu Workshop. This new Hague instrument affirms party autonomy as a basis for the choice of law in international contracts and provides a modern international standard to economies engaged in law reform in the area of international commercial contracts.