Natural Forum
6.2.7 The doctrine of the natural forum was developed by many common law countries as an ad hoc technique for the allocation of jurisdiction among different countries when disputes arise which could plausibly be tried in a number of competing jurisdictions. It also serves an important function of curbing forum-shopping by parties seeking procedural advantages in jurisdictions which may not have strong, or even any, connections with the underlying subject matter of the dispute. The fundamental idea is that the case should be tried in the forum which is most suited to try it in the interests of the parties and for the ends of justice. The leading authority from England, The Spiliada [1987] AC 460, has been adopted in Singapore in a number of leading decisions (see, eg, Brinkerhoff Maritime Drilling Corp v P T Airfast Indonesia [1992] 2 SLR 776, PT Hutan Domas Raya v Yue Xiu Enterprise (Holdings) Ltd [2001] 2 SLR 49).