On 23 December 2020, the Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) of China released its bilingual 2019 Annual Report on Judicial Review of Arbitration Cases in China (the “Report”). It is the very first report issued by the SPC summarising the courts’ approach for judicial review of arbitration-related cases. The Report aims to promote the SPC’s efforts … Read more

On 27 November 2020, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court and the Hong Kong Department of Justice signed the Supplemental Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Supplemental Arrangement). The Supplemental Arrangement modifies and supplements the existing Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the … Read more

On 6 August 2020, Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court made a civil ruling that an arbitral award made in Guangzhou by the ICC should be regarded as a Chinese arbitral award with a foreign element. It follows that the award should be enforced under Article 273 of the PRC Civil Procedure Law, rather than under the … Read more

On 7 September 2020, the State Council of China published a policy paper on opening up the services sector in Beijing (“Work Plan for Deepening Comprehensive Pilot and New Round of Opening-Up of Services Sectors in Beijing and Building Comprehensive Demonstrative Area of Opening-up of State Services Sectors” or《深化北京市新一轮服务业扩大开放综合试点建设国家服务业扩大开放综合示范区工作方案》). The paper announces  that foreign arbitral … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills invites applications for internships with the firm’s international arbitration group in Hong Kong. Four internship positions are available during 2021; each for three to four month periods (not extendable). Interns will work alongside our international arbitration team and will have a varied workload, including assistance with current arbitrations and other client work; … Read more

While commercial parties are generally free to select the law that governs their contracts, they must also ensure that they understand the law they selected, and can actually apply that law to the contract.  In a CIETAC arbitral award published by CIETAC in its publication “Selection of Arbitration Cases Involving the Belt and Road Countries”, … Read more

Can a foreign arbitral award be recognized and enforced in the PRC against a foreign company not incorporated there? In the recent case of Amarante vs Intermarine[1], the Tianjin Higher People’s Court confirmed the Tianjin Maritime Court’s decision to recognize and enforce a foreign arbitral award against a BVI company, by finding that the BVI … Read more

The Supreme Court of People’s Republic of China (SPC) formally promulgated the amended version of Several Provisions of the SPC on Evidence for Civil Litigation (New Evidence Rules) on 25 December 2019, which came into effect on 1 May 2020. There are many highlights in the New Evidence Rules. To provide readers with some guidance … Read more