In a rare move, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance has refused to enforce an arbitral award, rejecting an appeal from its earlier decision to set aside the enforcement order. X v Y  [2020] HKCFI 2782 Background The dispute arose between X, a Taiwanese life insurance company as investor and pledger, and the Bank … Read more

Disruption, downturn and recovery tend to generate more disputes – and in Asia Pacific cross-jurisdiction operations and investments increase that risk. Our 2021 Guide to Dispute Resolution in Asia Pacific is your roadmap to potential problems in these fast-changing times, especially for those new to the region’s complex legal landscape. From the basics of each … Read more

In A v D [2020] HKCFI 2887, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance refused to extend time for the applicants (the “Applicants”) to apply to set aside an arbitral award on the basis that the Applicants failed to give any satisfactory explanation for their delay in making the application.  The Court further found that, … 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

Hong Kong’s District Court has refused to grant an injunction to restrain an arbitrator from acting in an arbitration, on the grounds that there was already another identical application before the court scheduled for hearing and that there was no urgency for granting an “interim-interim” injunction. Read more

The long-running case of Xiamen Xinjingdi Group Co Ltd v Eton Properties Limited and Others [2020] HKCFA 32 finally came to an end when the Court of Final Appeal (the CFA) handed down its decision on 9 Oct 2020. In the judgment, the CFA clarifies that in a common law enforcement action on an arbitral … 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