Dispute Resolution In China

This book focuses on the law and development of major dispute resolution mechanisms in China, examining the design and legal framework of civil litigation, arbitration and mediation, their operations, challenges, and past-decade reforms.

This book brings together articles from leading experts in the field of international dispute resolution. The main focus is on the situation in Asia, though the European perspective also plays an important part. Accordingly, the focus on the Asian dispute resolution market with a distinctly American and European “touch” is one of the book’s most unique features. The dispute resolution market is rapidly transforming, and dispute resolution law is changing with it –especially in Asia. This book highlights recent advances and outlines future trends in this area. Emphasis is especially placed on International Commercial Arbitration Law on the one hand; and on International Investment Arbitration Law on the other. Two dedicated sections address these two topics, while another is dedicated to a quite new phenomenon in the field of international dispute resolution, the emergence of International Commercial Courts not only in Asia, but also in other regions of the world (e.g. in the Netherlands). This raises a host of interesting legal questions, which the book addresses. The book’s final section investigates general trends in dispute resolution (e.g. the rising cost problem in arbitration in general).

This book provides a comprehensive and contextual analysis of the various methods of civil dispute resolution in the PRC. The approach to analysis is historical, comparative and socio-legal.

2020 marked a remarkably unusual year for all, tough and impressive enough. Along with the prevalence of COVID-19 and the deepening of economic globalization, work and production in China were resumed in an orderly manner, bringing positive economic growth against the trend. In this context, commercial dispute resolutions in China were faced with new challenges and endured new reforms while embracing new developments. The promulgation of new laws and regulations in 2020, including the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China and the Supplementary Arrangements on Mutual Implementation of Arbitral Awards in Mainland China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, has elevated the arbitration system to a higher level. Arbitration institutions such as the Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center (hereinafter referred to as “BAC/BIAC”) carried out anti-pandemic measures in a timely manner to ensure the well-functioning of the arbitration procedures. Meanwhile, China’s judicial supervision on arbitration and arbitration disclosure have undergone impressive developments. In 2020, the procedural standards of commercial mediation were further optimized, and commercial mediation institutions continued to expand and grow, while the number of mediation cases increased steadily. The “one-stop” diversified dispute resolution system was fully advanced, and the systems of litigation-mediation and arbitration-mediation have been constantly improved. Online mediation mechanism was rapidly developed in response to the new norms of pandemic prevention and control. Sino-foreign joint mediation mechanism has been gradually established, and international commercial mediation rules and systems are continuously refined. While rolling out countermeasures in full scale to mitigate impacts of pandemic, China achieved some eye-catching accomplishments in terms of legal system development and dispute resolution practices in 2020. To present an in-depth and systematic report on the 2020 practices and developments in the aforementioned fields, BAC/BIAC has called upon industry experts to contribute to the Annual Review and Preview of Commercial Dispute Resolution in China (2021) (“2021 Annual Review”), and released it in both Chinese and English to facilitate a better understanding of the status quo of China’s commercial dispute resolutions among interested parties at home and abroad. The 2021 Annual Review is compiled based on the following principles: First, focus on the state of the art. The 2021 Annual Review strives to showcase the latest developments in relevant industries and the leading trends in legal systems and judicial practices. It selected annual hot topics for in-depth analysis, aiming to deliver timely observations and cutting-edge contents while providing detailed information thereof. Second, focus on consistency and systematises. By inheriting previous compilation rules, the 2021 Annual Review presents an annual overview of various industries, crucial laws and policies, typical cases, analyses of heated issues and prospects, such that the readers are able to grasp the practices and developments of key industries from a multi-angle, holistic perspective. Third, focus on practicability. The 2021 Annual Review pays attention to the pragmatic value in order to help commercial entities improve their abilities of risk prevention and dispute resolution. The Editorial Committee is composed of seasoned professionals who deliver observations and opinions based on their rich experience on the industry’s frontline, providing practical references for the readers.

China's ever-expanding commercial influence has attracted global attention on how its civil and commercial disputes are resolved. This compelling new book, Dispute Resolution in China, offers a detailed examination of the elements in the Chinese legal system and the relevant reforms to the multiplicity of approaches to civil and commercial disputes in China today. This book reveals how civil litigation, commercial arbitration, mediation, and their hybrid dispute resolution have distinctly responded to, reformed, and developed in the context of China’s transformational economic growth, societal development, and international interaction in the last two decades. It situates these developments and continued experimentation within a unique hybrid of empirical, contextual, and comparative analytical framework, while paving productive pathways towards the future. This book argues that, rather than being a legal project, China’s civil and commercial dispute resolution system is essentially a social development project, which distinguishes the Chinese approach to civil justice reform from contemporary civil justice movements elsewhere. Among the primary methods of dispute resolution, commercial arbitration in China today uniquely transcending the traditional socio-political constraints, its reform has developed in favor of market-oriented considerations and shaped by China’s socio-economic dynamics and internationalization needs. By contrast, civil litigation and mediation being more instrumentalist in nature, their reform is socio-politically embedded and continues to prioritize social stability. This book also shines a fresh light on comparative assessments of top-down and bottom-up changes in China’s dispute resolution discourse, as well as on how China speaks to international dispute resolution systems. Original and rich in its analysis, this book will be essential reading and invaluable reference tool for scholars with a focus on Chinese law, comparative and international dispute resolution, and on broader legal, institutional, economic, social, political and cultural dimensions of dispute resolution development.

China and International Commercial Dispute Resolution is a unique collection of papers which deal expertly with legal issues arising from international commercial dispute resolution in China, utilizing a multiplicity of approaches including doctrinal, comparative, empirical, economic and legal analyses.

Written by eminent international judges, scholars and practitioners, this book offers a timely study of China's role in international dispute resolution in the context of the construction of the 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI). It provides in-depth analysis of the law and practice in the fields of international trade, commerce, investment and international law of the sea, as they relate to the BRI construction. It is the first comprehensive assessment of China's policy and practice in international dispute resolution, in general and in individual fields, in the context of the BRI construction. This book will be an indispensable reading for scholars and practitioners with interest in China and international dispute resolution. It also constitutes an invaluable reference for anyone interested in the changing international law and order, in which China is playing an increasingly significant role, particularly through the BRI construction.