Judicial diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific: theory and evidence from the Singapore-initiated transnational judicial insolvency network

The promulgation of the Judicial Insolvency Network (JIN) Guidelines by the Supreme Court of Singapore in 2017 has triggered innovative cross-border insolvency developments in the Asia-Pacific. It is intriguing that the Guidelines were conceived not by Singaporean judges alone, but jointly with a transnational network of bankruptcy judges. This article undertakes the original contribution of examining the Guidelines in light of the overall need for participating jurisdictions to craft a transnational insolvency framework. It uses Hong Kong as a test case to illustrate trends of likely future convergence.