Beijing Arbitration Commission

    On August 23, 2013, the Annual Review on Commercial Dispute Resolution in China (2013) (hereinafter referred to as the “Annual Review”) Launch & Symposia was successfully held in BAC’s International Conference Hall. The authors of the Annual Review respectively introduced the main contents of the sub-reports, and many authoritative experts both in theories and practice including judges, scholars, lawyers and company managers concerned about the dispute resolution in China made excellent comments on the Annual Review.

    At the beginning of the symposia, BAC’s Secretary-general LIN Zhiwei delivered a welcoming address. He pointed out: as a center integrating dispute resolution, research, training, publicity and promotion and providing diversified dispute resolution services, BAC gathers together hundreds of top experts in relevant fields and shoulders the responsibility to set up a platform for the studies on China’s booming dispute resolution undertaking, so as to demonstrate the current developments in this field to the whole country and to the world with the joint force of relevant parties. Mr. LIN also denoted that as the first attempt of its kind by BAC, the Annual Review has many defects, and BAC sincerely hopes that the experts in all fields could contribute their wise ideas and thoughts on the improvement of the Annual Review. In the future, BAC will continue to organize the compilation of the Annual Review for the following years, and will give prominence to the influence of the Annual Review on institutional improvement and policy-making by further expanding the fields involved in its contents and by making in-depth and objective summarization and clarification. BAC welcomes more people of vision to participate in this work.

(Scene of symposia)	(BAC’s Secretary-general LIN Zhiwei is delivering an address)

    As the first part of the symposia, the Annual Review on Commercial Arbitration in China (2013) Launch & Symposium was presided over by BAC’s Deputy Secretary-general CHEN Fuyong. As one of the organizers for the compilation of the Annual Review, Mr. CHEN first introduced the background and topics of the symposia on behalf of BAC. The English version of the Annual Review was grandly launched in the UK in June 2013, and the Chinese version was published in Beijing Arbitration in full text soon afterwards. The main topics of the symposia include the evaluation about whether the contents of the Annual Review are complete and correct and whether the comments of the Annual Review are objective and just, so as to set a solid foundation for the following compilation of the Annual Review. Mr. CHEN also explained the reasons why “2013” was included in the name of the Annual Review.

    The discussions on the above topics in the first part of the symposia followed Mr. CHEN’s speech. Mr. SONG Lianbin, Professor of the School of International Law, China University of Political Science and Law, an arbitrator of BAC and author of the Annual Review on Commercial Arbitration in China (“Annual Review on Arbitration”) (2013) introduced the two great events in China’s arbitration field in 2012 that he chose for the Annual Review and explained the reasons of his choice, and then prospected the contents for the Annual Review of the following year. He said that if BAC can compile an Annual Review every year and continue the compilation for ten or more years, people will see more valuable contents such as the directions of institutional improvement.

(BAC’s Deputy Secretary-general CHEN Fuyong is presiding over the symposium)	(Mr. SONG Lianbin, Professor of the School of International Law, China University of Political Science and Law, is delivering a speech)

    The commentator Ms. GAO Xiaoli, Judge of the 4th Civil Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court, first highly appraised the complete contents and the pertinent comments in the Annual Review on Arbitration. In her opinion, the Annual Review on Arbitration sorts out the developments of the commercial arbitration in 2012; gives prominence to the amendment to the Civil Procedure Law, the changes of arbitration rules, and the practice of judicial review in people’s courts especially the contents of judicial review. As the Annual Review points out the existing problems in the practice, it is of great practical significance. Then, Judge GAO pointed out the focus issues of popular concern to the legal practitioners may be included in Annual Review. Besides, she also gave some suggestions on the choice of judicial cases and other materials.

    The commentator Mr. WANG Yaxin, an arbitrator of BAC and Professor of the School of Law, Tsinghua University, quite agreed with Judge GAO’s comments and praised the Annual Review on Arbitration for its advantageous comprehensiveness. At the same time, Professor WANG also pointed out some improvements could be made to Annual Review on Arbitration. For example, the data collection could be more complete and meticulous, so as to reveal the overall situation of commercial arbitration’s developments in China in 2012 and the earlier years in an all-round manner; though it will be tough task due to the confidential nature of arbitration, he believes that BAC and relevant experts have the capability to do a better job. Besides, he said that long-term attention should be paid to legislation trends, and the focal point for the following years is the implementation of the new Civil Procedure Law in the judicial practice.

(Ms. GAO Xiaoli, Judge of the 4th Civil Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court, is making comments)	(Mr. WANG Yaxin, Professor of the School of Law, Tsinghua University, is making comments)

    As the second part of the symposia, the Annual Review on Commercial Mediation in China (2013) (“Annual Review on Mediation”) Launch & Symposium was presided over by Mr. TAN Zhiqi, Director of the Securities Dispute Mediation Center, Securities Association of China. Mr. TAN expressed his appreciation to BAC for its explorations and contributions in establishing mediation organizations, formulating mediation rules and training mediators. He said that the Annual Review on Mediation covers the legal environment, policy environment and social environment of mediation, and is therefore extremely inspiring and is of great reference value.

    Mr. WU Jun, author of the Annual Review on Commercial Mediation in China (2013) and a doctoral candidate of the School of Law, Tsinghua University, then introduced the formation of the Annual Review on Mediation as well as its four parts and preliminary conclusions, and shared with the participants his research progress as well as his thoughts on China’s mediation undertaking and his judgment of the future development trends in this field. He specially pointed out that the reform plans promulgated by the Supreme People’s Court have brought in cutting-edge institutional designs, and he called on medication organizations including BAC’s Mediation Center to make these good institutions well established in China.

(Mr. TAN Zhiqi, Director of the Securities Dispute Mediation Center, Securities Association of China, is presiding over the symposium)	(Mr. WU Jun, a doctoral candidate of the School of Law, Tsinghua University, is delivering a speech)

    The commentator Ms. YANG Yan, Associate Chief Judge of the Case-filing Division, Beijing Higher People’s Court, expressed her opinion that the Annual Review on Mediation enables the readers to have a comprehensive and all-round understanding of the developments of China’s commercial mediation in 2012 with its comments clinching to the point in the full and accurate data. Ms. YANG then pointed out some prominent problems that may appear and need to be paid further attention to in the future development of commercial mediation, such as the reconciliation agreements of which mediation organizations are recognized in the judicial proceeding. Besides, though the people’s courts in Beijing are actively popularizing the pre-litigation mediation, the concept of mediation is not enjoying popular support and the relevant parties are not quite acquainted with the advantages and features of commercial mediation, therefore the Annual Review should do more conclusion and popularity work. In addition, the people’s court should give more guidance on and support to the establishment of litigation-mediation connection procedure and the standardization of mediation procedure.

    The commentator Mr. GUO Yuzhong, an arbitrator of BAC and Executive Deputy Director of the Dispute Resolution Center under the Electronics Intellectual Property Center, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), appraised the Annual Review on Mediation for its rich data, indicated the problems in its reader positioning and information collection channels and gave suggestions, pointed out its defects in sample collection, and said that the Mediation Alliance could provide rich materials and data for the compilation of the Annual Review in the future. Mr. GUO pointed out that the following years will be a key period for the development of China’s mediation undertaking, and the development of mediation organization of all types will be a good entry point for the Annual Review on Mediation. Mr. GUO also gave valuable suggestions on such aspects as the introducing advanced research results of the academia on mediation as well as paying attention to major mediation cases and mediators.

(Ms. YANG Yan, Associate Chief Judge of the Case-filing Division, Beijing Higher People’s Court, is making comments)	(Mr. GUO Yuzhong, Executive Deputy Director of the Dispute Resolution Center under the Electronics Intellectual Property Center, MIIT, is making comments)

    As the third part of the symposia was presided over by Ms. LIN Ziying, Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Tribunal, Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court. Ms. LIN introduced that the intellectual property cases tried by the people’s courts are increasing due to the development of new technologies and the improvement of enterprises’ marketization. New technologies have led to the appearance of novel and complicated cases as well as different viewpoints, and the Annual Review for the following years may demonstrate and analyze the greatly controversial frontier issues in combination with the different proposal modes of the people’s courts. Besides, Ms. LIN also put forward valuable suggestions on the structural arrangement of the review on intellectual property.

    Mr. XIE Guanbin, author of the Annual Review on Intellectual Property Dispute Resolution in China (2013) (“Annual Review on Intellectual Property”), an arbitrator of BAC and Partner of Lifang & Partners, delivered a speech. Mr. XIE introduced the background of the Annual Review to introduce China’s intellectual property resolution practice to the overseas as well as the concept for and difficulties in the compilation of the Annual Review, especially the criteria for the selection of cases. He said that many new laws were promulgated and many interesting cases happened in the intellectual property field in 2012, and the Annual Review reflects the author’s subjective thinking through the choice of its contents.

(Ms. LIN Ziying, Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Tribunal, Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court, is presiding over the symposium)	(Mr. XIE Guanbin, Partner of Lifang & Partners, is delivering a speech)

    The commentator Mr. TANG Gongyuan, an arbitrator of BAC and Greater China Region Legal Counsel & Manager of IBM China Co., Ltd., said that the Annual Review on Intellectual Property is a report focusing on the theme of commercial dispute resolution and provides rich information. He pointed out that today’s society has entered the big data era, and the application of the data integration in the settlement of specific problems has become an approach of social management. On the basis of data collection, the Annual Review should stress on the analysis and application of data so as to play the role of guiding the practice. Mr. TANG said that intellectual property is the core asset of modern enterprises, and the Annual Review will be of greater value if it can take the perspective of how should enterprises better manage and protect their intellectual property through dispute resolution.

    The commentator Mr. MA Xiaogang, an arbitrator of BAC and Partner of Hylands Law Firm, said the Annual Review not only introduces the information in 2012, but also summarizes the overall developments in the decades after the establishment of China’s intellectual property institutions as well as the forecast of the future development, enabling the overseas to have a better understanding of the general situation of intellectual property protection in China. Mr. MA also put forward the following suggestions: the Annual Review should supplement other manners like arbitration and mediation as judicial procedure is not the only approach for dispute resolution; the Annual Review should add some hot issues in the amendments by new laws, such as the system for collective management of copyright and the right to remuneration for secondary uses; as to the selection of cases, the disputes with key relevance to the practice shall be chosen; the scope of intellectual property may be extended to brands of the culture industry, cultural media and franchise.

(Mr. TANG Gongyuan, Greater China Region Legal Counsel & Manager of IBM China Co., Ltd., is making comments)	(Mr. MA Xiaogang, Partner of Hylands Law Firm, is making comments)

    As the third part of the symposia, the Annual Review on Construction Engineering Dispute Resolution in China (2013) (“Annual Review on Construction Engineering”) Launch & Symposium was presided over by Mr. QIU Chuang, an arbitrator of BAC and President of JCM (Beijing) International Engineering Technology Research Institute. Mr. QIU said that the Annual Review is of great collection value to professionals in engineering management, etc. as it reflects the current status of China’s construction engineering management through the clear summarization of the legislation, model contracts and cases in China’s construction engineering sector in 2012, playing an important guiding role to practitioners of construction engineering management.

    Ms. TAN Jinghui, author of the Annual Review on Construction Engineering Dispute Resolution in China (2013), an arbitrator of BAC and Director of City Development (Beijing) Law Firm, delivered a speech. Ms. TAN introduced that the Annual Review on Construction Engineering is oriented to introduce excellent institutional designs and practical experience in China’s construction engineering sector to the overseas, therefore, she gave emphasis to certain points in the selection of contents. Then, she introduced the essence of the Annual Review on Construction Engineering, including legislation developments, model contracts, selected cases and focus issues.

(Mr. QIU Chuang, President of JCM (Beijing) International Engineering Technology Research Institute, is presiding over the symposium)	(Ms. TAN Jinghui, Director of City Development (Beijing) Law Firm, is delivering a speech)

    The commentator Mr. CHEN Min, Judge of the 1st Civil Tribunal of Beijing Higher People’s Court, said there are both analysis of the macro legislation situation and meticulous assessment of cases in the Annual Review on Construction Engineering. He praised the Annual Review on Construction Engineering for its many highlights, such as the summarization of legislation developments and the analysis of problems in China’s construction engineering sector. Mr. CHEN suggested that if the Annual Review on Construction Engineering could use more objective and authentic data as the support, its positivity will be further improved. In addition, Mr. CHEN said the Annual Review on Construction Engineering should not only include objective statement but also reflect the author’s subjective value judgment, e.g. to forecast trends and put forward suggestions through the categorization of cases.

    The commentator Mr. ZHAO Hang, an arbitrator of BAC and Partner of Tongshang Law Firm, agreed with Mr. CHEN Min’s opinions and said that the Annual Review should be subjective to some extent. He praised the Annual Review for its hard efforts in introducing the legal system and the dispute resolution mechanisms suitable to China’s construction engineering sector to other countries and regions with a manner they can comprehend. At the same time, he also pointed out that the Annual Review has more improvements in terms of retrospection and forecast.

(Mr. CHEN Min, Judge of the 1st Civil Tribunal of Beijing Higher People’s Court, is making comments)	(Mr. ZHAO Hang, Partner of Tongshang Law Firm, is making comments)

    As the third part of the symposia, the Annual Review on Financial Dispute Resolution in China (2013) (“Annual Review on Financial Dispute”) Launch & Symposium was presided over by Mr. BU Xiangrui, Director of the Rights Protection Department, China Banking Association. Mr. BU first praised BAC for undertaking a task of overall interest. Then, he pointed out that the Annual Review on Financial Dispute Resolution in China (2013) only introduces relevant information about the securities sector and the insurance sector, but lacks the introduction about the banking sector. In fact, China Banking Association is making consistent efforts to set up and improve the financial dispute resolution system for the banking sector, and China Banking Association will engage in further in-depth communications with BAC on how to resolve the disputes between consumers and banks as well as among banks, including providing materials for the following Annual Review.

    Ms. XIAO Fang, author of the Annual Review on Financial Dispute Resolution in China (2013) and Associate Professor of the Law School, Central University of Finance and Economics, introduced the characteristics of financial dispute cases and financial dispute resolution as well as their relationship, and shared with the participants her viewpoints and thinking on two hot issues in the financial dispute resolution field in 2012: the professionalization of financial dispute resolution and the resolution of group financial disputes. In the end, Ms. XIAO talked about her puzzles and troubles when writing the Annual Review on Financial Dispute, such as how to make use of the cases and how to balance the substantial law and the procedural law in specific fields, which arouse the profound thinking of the participants.

(Mr. BU Xiangrui, Director of the Rights Protection Department, China Banking Association, is presiding over the symposium)	(Ms. XIAO Fang, Associate Professor of the Law School, Central University of Finance and Economics, is delivering a speech)

    The commentator Mr. TAO Xiuming, an arbitrator of BAC and Partner of JunZeJun Law Offices, put forward his suggestions from the perspective of the financial industry’s actual demands: the financial industry pays close attention to the innovation and compliance of financial products, therefore, the Annual Review on Financial Dispute should focus on regulatory provisions influencing the market development as well as chose and meticulously analyze the cases related to core issues of concern to the market. Besides, the scope of the Annual Review on Financial Dispute may be expanded to the investment and financing sector in the general meaning. Mr. TAO also pointed out that professional and marketized arbitration should be a priority option for financial dispute resolution.

    The commentator Mr. WU Shengchun, an arbitrator of BAC and Deputy General Manager of the Legal and Compliance Department, CCB Headquarters, first appraised the Annual Review on Financial Dispute for its complete and accurate dimensionality and its provision of a good perspective for the readers to have an understanding of financial dispute resolution. As to the parts of the Annual Review on Financial Dispute, Mr. WU suggested the five sectors in the financial industry should be separately analyzed. As to the selection of cases, Mr. WU suggested the Annual Review on Financial Dispute of the following years should pay attention to the cases of guiding nature published by the Supreme People’s Court. Meanwhile, Mr. WU said the Annual Review on Financial Dispute should also include the conclusion of several hot issues and difficult problems of the year in the financial industry, and the analysis of cases should give prominence to the features of dispute resolution manners, e.g. arbitration.

(Mr. TAO Xiuming, Partner of JunZeJun Law Offices, is making comments)	(Mr. WU Shengchun, Deputy General Manager of the Legal and Compliance Department, CCB Headquarters, is making comments)

    Afterwards, the symposia entered the phase of free discussions. Such participants as BAC’s arbitrator ZHANG Jianhua, Partner of Dacheng Law Offices LIU Chi, Partner of Dacheng Law Offices DENG Yongquan, Partner of Fenxun Partners BAO Zhi, General Manager CAO Shunming of China Reinsurance (Group) Corporation’s Internal Control, Compliance and Legal Affairs Department, Professor YANG Weidong of North China Electric Power University expressed their opinions on how to make further improvement of the Annual Review, and put forward inspiring advice and suggestions on the orientation, style, author team, sample collection and content arrangement of the Annual Review.

(Free discussions)

    At last, BAC’s Secretary-general LIN Zhiwei thanked the participants for their advice and suggestions on the Annual Review, and said that BAC will continue to make down-to-earth efforts in organizing the compilation of the Annual Review and try its best to offer China and the world with a series of Annual Reviews that satisfy the audience demands, closely connect with the practice and highlight BAC’s characteristics.

    The symposia came to a successful end in warm applauses.