The 2021 Shanghai Arbitration Week (“SHAW”) kicked off on 8 November 2021, accompanying the grand event of the Shanghai International Arbitration Summit. Mr. Xiong Xuanguo, Vice Minister of the Justice Department of the PRC, Mr. Peng Chenlei, Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, Ms. Anna Joubin-Bret, Secretary-General of UNCITRAL, and Ms. Lucy Reed, President…

The Chinese Arbitration Act (1995) recognizes the principle of competence-competence in Article 20, under which a party challenging the validity of the arbitration agreement may request the relevant arbitration commission to make a decision or apply to the court for a ruling. Ultimately, though, it is the reviewing courts in PR China that shall have…

Dr Ma Yi is the Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center (“SHIAC”) – SHIAC is also one of our Blog’s newest Permanent Contributors. Before joining SHIAC, he was actively involved in the growth of Shanghai’s legal scene as a Director at the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Deputy Secretary…

The practice of adverse document production or disclosure is largely foreign in civil law jurisdictions like mainland China. Despite resistance, the growth of judicial practice on document production prompted the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”) to make the new Rules of Evidence on Civil Procedure (“Rules of Evidence”) on December 25, 2019, effective as…

The use of expert witness is common in international arbitration. Recent discussions amongst Chinese practitioners have centered on the case related to the world-famous Chinese athlete Sun Yang in which the WADA’s expert opinion was believed to be material to the ruling of the CAS tribunal (“WADA vs. Sun Yang”).1)CAS2019/A/6148, World Anti-Doping Agency v. Sun…

Under China’s arbitration regime for foreign-related arbitration and international arbitration, the concept of a juridical seat is a statutory juncture where, in cases with no express agreement on the applicable law between the parties, Chinese courts must determine the applicable law (statutory text is available in Chinese here and unofficial English translation here).1) See Article…

Arbitration is often used to resolve financial disputes in China. For example, China’s financial regulation organs, i.e., People’s Bank of China, China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission and China Banking Regulatory Commission, each have made efforts in promoting the use of arbitration in their regulated areas of business. Data released by the Ministry…