At present, Shanghai has 4 arbitration institutions registered in accordance with the law, and 4 representative institutions set up by overseas arbitration institutions in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which is the city with the most concentrated and abundant resources of arbitration institutions in the mainland
After the reform, the Shanghai Arbitration Commission cancelled its business establishment and became a non-profit legal person providing arbitration services to the market. The new committee is composed of 15 domestic and foreign arbitration experts, and has initially established an international and modern corporate governance structure
On the eve of the Spring Festival, the Shanghai Arbitration Commission held a video interview for three consecutive days. The 32 candidates interviewed came from 15 countries and regions, graduated from Cambridge, Oxford, Penn and other world famous universities. "These people are all selected from the best, the interview performance is very good, we are considering it comprehensively, identifying the people who will enter the second round of interviews, and look forward to working with them in the future." Huang Yiwen, head of the shanghai arbitration commission's cooperation and development, said.
At the end of September last year, the Shanghai Arbitration Commission released a "hero post" on the ISIP (International Student Interview Program), a platform for 33 top law schools in the United States to jointly conduct campus recruitment. As the first arbitral institution in China to recruit here, the feedback was encouraging: 338 resumes were received in just over a month, of which 208 were from China and the remaining 130 were from 44 countries and regions.
Behind this is the growing appeal of Shanghai arbitration. In April 2021, the "2021 International Arbitration Survey Report" released by queen Mary University of The United Kingdom, an authoritative research institution for international arbitration, showed that Shanghai ranked among the top ten most popular arbitration venues in the world for the first time, ranking eighth. Arbitration is one of the most effective and popular commercial dispute resolution systems in the world. As the city with the most concentrated and abundant resources of arbitration institutions in mainland China, Shanghai is continuing to promote the innovation of institutional mechanisms, making every effort to build an Asia-Pacific arbitration center facing the world, and continuously moving towards the international arbitration capital.
Shanghai arbitration ushered in a period of rapid development
Ma Yi, vice president of the Shanghai Municipal Council for the Promotion of International Trade and deputy director of the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, said that arbitral awards have cross-border enforcement power, and the 169 countries that have signed the New York Convention mutually recognize the validity of arbitral awards and support enforcement, which has a comparative advantage in international commercial dispute resolution. Practice has proved that areas with developed commercial civilization have an open and inclusive market environment, which is very much needed and conducive to the development of arbitration. In many international metropolises, arbitration legal services are generally developed, such as New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.
"Since its opening, Shanghai has gradually become a city where Eastern and Western commerce and culture are fully integrated. The city gene of stressing the rule of law, emphasizing contracts and abiding by rules has promoted Shanghai to become one of the important birthplaces of commercial arbitration in mainland China. Yu Weifeng, president of the Shanghai Arbitration Association, said.
Since the implementation of China's first arbitration law in 1995, by the end of 2021, Shanghai arbitration institutions have handled more than 60,000 cases of various types, with a total subject amount of more than 420 billion yuan, and the parties have spread to more than 80 countries and regions around the world. In particular, since 2019, Shanghai's arbitration business has shown a high growth trend, with local arbitration institutions accepting nearly 20,000 cases in three years, accounting for more than 30% of the total number of cases in the past years, and the total subject amount of 201.8 billion yuan, close to 50% of the total subject amount of the calendar year.
Please enter "Catfish" to accelerate internationalization
In April 2015, the State Council issued the "Plan for Further Deepening the Reform and Opening Up of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone", which for the first time proposed that Shanghai should accelerate the construction of an Asia-Pacific arbitration center facing the world, and an important reason is to strengthen the mainland's foreign-related rule of law discourse.
Shanghai's establishment of the Asia-Pacific Arbitration Center is to create an arbitration destination that is popular with domestic and foreign parties. Xu Yong, director of the Arbitration Work Department of the Municipal Bureau of Justice, said that the opening up of arbitration business to the outside world is not only conducive to enabling domestic parties to resolve disputes in a more familiar judicial environment, but also conducive to attracting more foreign parties to choose arbitration in Shanghai.
Attracting high-end international arbitral institutions is the first step. In 2019, the first Shanghai International Arbitration Summit Forum was unveiled at the CIIE, and the Administrative Measures for overseas arbitration institutions to establish business institutions in the Lingang New Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone were released at the opening ceremony, which is the first implementation document for the opening up of arbitration business in China. In the same year, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center was approved to set up a business institution in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, and officially operated in October 2020, becoming the first arbitration institution registered by an international organization arbitration institution in mainland China, and by the end of 2021, it had accepted more than 40 foreign-related intellectual property mediation cases.
At present, Shanghai has 4 arbitration institutions registered in accordance with the law, and 4 representative institutions set up by overseas arbitration institutions in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which is the city with the most concentrated and abundant resources of arbitration institutions in the mainland.
"The introduction of overseas arbitration institutions to settle in Shanghai will inevitably form a competition with Shanghai's local arbitration institutions." Xu Yong said, "Arbitration is not subject to geographical jurisdiction, the parties can independently choose domestic and foreign arbitration institutions, and competition exists objectively." Expanding opening up can not only increase the supply of arbitration legal services, but also have a 'catfish effect' in a sense, which is conducive to the acceleration of international development of local arbitration institutions." ”
Creating the "Home of China" in International Arbitration
In addition to "please come in", Shanghai arbitration institutions are also striving to create a "home" for China's international commercial arbitration through "self-revolution". Lu Weidong, secretary of the party committee and director of the Municipal Bureau of Justice, said: "Shanghai is making great determination and efforts to carry out institutional reform of the Shanghai Arbitration Commission. ”
In January 2021, Shanghai issued the country's first reform plan for mainstream arbitration institutions to withdraw from the public institution system, the "Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Shanghai Arbitration Commission", which clarified that the reformed Shanghai Arbitration Commission would withdraw from the sequence of public institutions, cancel the establishment of public institutions, and become a non-profit legal person established by the municipal government, registered and managed by the Municipal Bureau of Justice, and providing arbitration services for the market. In August of the same year, the reform task was basically completed, and the new committee was composed of 15 domestic and foreign arbitration experts. Initially establish an international modern corporate governance structure, and implement a governance mechanism in which decision-making power, execution power, and supervision power are separated from each other and effective checks and balances are implemented.
Fan Mingchao, executive deputy director of the Shanghai Arbitration Commission, said: "Leaving the system is like stepping out of the 'comfort zone' into the unknown deep sea, but reform is more of a system loosening and vitality bursting out, and we firmly believe that after the 'pain' there will be a bright future." ”
This reform has also attracted a group of talents with working backgrounds in foreign dispute settlement institutions to join. Prior to joining the Shanghai Arbitration Commission in 2021, Wong worked at the Singapore International Mediation Centre for three years as Director of East Asia. She said: "This reform is very sensational in the arbitration circle, and the leaders are legal people with rich experience in foreign-related arbitration, who can fully feel the boldness of reform." In addition to her, Dun Dixin, who was the assistant chief justice of the Dubai Financial Court, and Ruian Guo, who was assistant to the US federal justice, have also joined in recent months.
"At present, we are stepping up efforts to revise the arbitration rules." Fan Mingchao introduced, "The new rules will fully absorb the concepts and practices of advanced international arbitration rules, and combine with Chinese arbitration practice, and will provide diversified arbitration services to meet the needs of diversified, professional and international dispute resolution services at home and abroad." ”
Last year, the Shanghai Arbitration Commission became the first arbitration institution in China to receive an observer seat in UNCITRAL Working Group I (MICROME). Liu Xiaohong, director of the Shanghai Arbitration Commission, said that in the future, it will continue to strengthen international exchanges and practical discussions, "convey the voice of the Shanghai and Chinese arbitration circles to the world, and work together with the international arbitration community to optimize the business environment".
Source: Jiefang Daily reporter Liu Xueyan
Editor: Feng Xiaoyu