아시아-태평양 국가의 제3자 자금지원제도 - 싱가포르·홍콩·오스트레일리아의 도입 현황과 그 시사점을 중심으로 -

Third-party funding is contracting, as a litigant, to obtain financial assistance from third-party funders in exchange for an interest in the potential recovery. The concept of a non-party to a dispute funding or providing financing to a party was once prohibited for violating the historic common law doctrines of maintenance and champerty. But there appears to be a trend toward removing maintenance and champerty as barriers to third-party funding. Because maintenance and champerty are no longer useful apparatuses for regulating third-party funding due to the imbalanced administration of the doctrines from jurisdictions to jurisdiction. Third-party funding first developed around insolvency litigation in Australia in 1990s and it remains a relatively new industry. Now, third-party funding gains momentum in Asia-Pacific. Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong have successfully established third-party funding regimes. India has a nascent but growing third-party funding market. This article provides an examination of the current state of the third-party funding, first in the Singapore, second in the Hong Kong, and finally in Australia. Additionally, this article explores some implications about introduction of third-party funding in Korea.