Karaoke contest puts the fun in arbitration, as litigants use songs to make their case before a bona fide judge – and it’s coming to Hong Kong

Take a real-life arbitration process in front of a bona fide judge, add a jury-audience and cases heard through the medium of song and you have Karaoke Court.

And it’s coming to Hong Kong, a city where karaoke regularly hits fever pitch, on August 22 at Duddell’s 4/F Salon and Terrace in Central.

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Participants sign an arbitration contract and the court’s decisions are legally binding. The fun part is when litigants sing their cases, whether it’s a dispute about where to go on the next family holiday or where friends should eat for dinner.

The concept is the brainchild of Singaporean Jack Tan, who wanted to explore the connection between society, law and art.

“Karaoke Court was inspired by the way different societies and subcultures have managed disputes through artistic expression, such as the origins of hip-hop, the Maltese song duel and of course the more famous Eskimo/Inuit song duel,” he says. Inuit litigants traditionally present grievances to their communities for judgment in the form of humorous and satirical song.

This non-Western and non-establishment system of conflict resolution appealed to Tan.