Global Commerce in Transition: Legal Perspectives on Trade and Sanctions

Synopsis

It is cautioned that the “once-rising tide of global cooperation … has given way to competition and distrust,” with tariffs, export controls, and economic sanctions now deployed as instruments of statecraft. (PM Lawrence Wong) Anchored in this new reality, the 19 August 2025 webinar Global Commerce in Transition: Legal Perspectives on Trade and Sanctions unites senior legal educators, policy scholars, and compliance professionals to examine emerging doctrines, deepen policy insights, foster academic dialogues, and equip counsel with workable strategies for an era of the shifting architecture of global commerce.

A first panel of leading trade-law academics explores selective US–China decoupling, ASEAN’s potential to anchor digital-trade governance, and data-flow barriers that strain multilateral norms. A second panel of senior comparative-law scholars and sanctions lawyers dissects cascading Western measures, China’s counter-sanctions toolkit, and contractual risk-mitigation practices. Collectively, these discussions empowers market entities and regional stakeholders to navigate a volatile regulatory landscape with strategic perspectives and practicable insights.

2.5 Public CPD Points

Practice Area: International Law

Training Level: General

Course Fee: $54.50

Registration Deadline: 12 August 2025

Event ID: EV25000206

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Programme

Speakers

Prior to joining SUSS Law, Dr You has worked at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, and Tel Aviv University.

Dr You specialises in the areas of corporate and financial regulation, law and technology, data and AI governance, geopolitics and global sanctions. He obtained his PhD from Sussex focusing on comparative takeover regulation and path dependency theory. He additionally holds a Master Degree in Law and Economics (EMLE, Hamburg & Bologna), an MPhil in Law and History (Renmin) and an LLB in Civil and Commercial Law (SWUPL).

Dr You has published extensively in leading academic outlets, including the Journal of Business Law, Computer Law & Security Review, Capital Markets Law Journal, etc. Frequently he is featured in international media such as Bloomberg, the WSJ, the SCMP, etc.

Professor Leslie Chew, S.C.

Over the years he has served on several governmental committees, including on the Military Court of Appeal and the Liquor Licensing Board.  Currently, he is a member of the Reform of Legal Education Committee and a Director of the charity Metropolitan YMCA as well as a Director of MY World Pte Ltd, one of the anchor operators for Early Childhood education.  He is on the panel of chairmen of the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Singapore Medical Council.  He is a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators of which he is a former President and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.  In 2019, together with like-minded professionals, he set up and is the current President of the Asia Pacific Institute of Experts (APIEx).

Professor Heng Wang

Professor Wang is an associate dean and a Professor of Law at Yong Pung How School of law at Singapore Management University and is also an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales (UNSW Law & Justice). Prior to these appointments, he was a professor and founding co-director of the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, UNSW Law & Justice.

Heng is a recipient of major grants and awards and has been named as a top researcher in international law by The Australian newspaper. His work has been cited in intergovernmental organisation documents. Heng has advised or been a keynote speaker at events organised by many reputable organisations and institutions (e.g. ADB, APEC and Korean Foreign Ministry, Bundesbank, CPMI/BIS, HCCH, ICC, ICSID, IMF, INTERPOL, MAS, NAB, UNDP, UNICTRAL, World Bank, WTO), and the private sector. As a member, he contributes to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) AI Governance Alliance and the WEF Future of Blockchain and Digital Assets Initiative. His current research focuses on the governance of digitalisation and sustainability, as well as the future of international economic relationships.

Professor Chen is a specially-appointed mediator of the Qianhai Court of Shenzhen, a director of the Qianhai International Commercial Mediation Center of Shenzhen, an advisor of the Commercial Mediation Law Professional Committee of the Shenzhen Bar Association, a mediator of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, and an arbitrator of multiple arbitration institutions including the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, mainly specializing international dispute resolution, foreign-related rule of law, economic sanctions and countermeasures.

Mr Goacher is a partner at Stephenson Harwood, a London-headquartered law firm. He is based in Singapore, and has now lived here for 7 years. Originally from the UK, he is also admitted to practise law in the State of New York. He is one of a small number of sanctions experts based in Asia, having spent many years advising, presenting and training on sanctions across the world. He was naturally drawn to sanctions work, after studying both law and politics for his undergraduate degree.

Jonathan is regularly asked to advise various high-profile international businesses on US and other economic sanctions, especially those administered and enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). His work includes advising clients on deals and trades that are potentially affected by sanctions; obtaining specific licences from sanctions regulators in order to permit actions that would otherwise be prevented by sanctions; and has represented sanctioned individuals in delisting applications.

Chairperson

Professor Hans Tjio

Hans has taught at the Faculty of Law, NUS, since 1990, and was previously Director of the Centre for Banking and Finance Law and Centre for Commercial Law Studies. He has published widely in international and local journals, and has written or cowritten books on company law, securities regulation and trust law. He is also a contributor to Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore on contract law and to Palmer’s Company Law (Geoffrey Morse ed).

He was previously seconded to the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Law. He is presently serving on the Securities Industry Council, as Deputy Chairman of the SGX Listing Advisory Committee, and a consultant with TSMP Law Corporation. He has been a visiting professor at National Taiwan University, Auckland and Shanghai’s ECUPL and a visiting scholar at Stanford and Melbourne. He has also delivered public lectures at the law schools of NTU, Tsinghua and Zhejiang Universities and West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences.