Beijing Arbitration Commission

    In the afternoon of September 11, 2013, the Seminar on Difficult Issues in International Arbitration, jointly sponsored by Beijing Arbitration Commission (“BAC”), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (“HKIAC”) and the Law School of Tsinghua University, was successfully held. Chaired by Ms. Teresa Cheng, Vice Chairperson of HKIAC, this seminar had the participation of Mr. Gary Born, Partner of WilmerHale, as the keynote speaker; as well as discussants including Ms. Chiann Bao, Secretary-general of HKIAC; Mr. Fei Ning, Partner of Hui Zhong Law Firm; and Mr. Friven Yeoh, Partner and Residential Hong Kong Representative of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. During the seminar, the panel of these special guests shared their latest practices and thoughts.

Chairperson Ms. Teresa Cheng	Keynote speaker Mr. Gary Born

    As one of the most acclaimed authorities in international commercial arbitration, Mr. Gary Born has participated in more than 550 international commercial arbitration cases, including the four biggest ICC international arbitration cases and many other historical ad hoc arbitration cases. Besides practice, Mr. Gary Born is also an accomplished researcher on the theoretical side of the field and has published works on international arbitration and transnational litigation. His monograph International Commercial Arbitration has been extensively used in the US as a textbook in international commercial arbitration studies. In this seminar, Mr. Gary Born started with the topic of interim measures in international commercial arbitration practice and talked about the criteria and factors necessary to the court’s decision of interim measures, and then gave detailed examples on the effect of interim measures in actual cases. From that, Chairperson Ms. Teresa Cheng led to discussions on the enforcement of interim measures in different jurisdictions by the other three guests from their own practices and experience. Mr. Fei Ning gave an introduction of the relevant laws and rules and the court’s attitude towards interim measures in the Chinese Mainland, and then used actual cases to talk about the techniques involved in the actual practice of interim measures of international commercial arbitration under existing laws. Mr. Yang Guanhua shared with the audience the current arbitration practice in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The rich discussions among the guests were met with strong interest from the audience, who interacted with the guests on matters such as different strategies to apply interim measures in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong. As Secretary-general of HKIAC, Ms. Chiann Bao answered the audience’s questions related to the provisions concerning interim measures and ad hoc arbitral tribunals in the new HKIAC rules. After discussions on many issues concerning international commercial arbitration practice, Mr. Gary Born gave a review on the practice in the Asia region and then shared his latest thoughts on bilateral/multilateral investment treaties. He noted that, due to the advantages of arbitration – it being professional, highly efficient and reliable, international trade will increasingly turn to international commercial arbitration as a way to resolve disputes in the future, and bilateral/multilateral arbitration treaties will also gradually become a trend to encourage more international trade and promote the better development of international commercial arbitration. This seminar was ended on a high note.

Panel discussion	Audiences are interacting with the panel

    BAC has always maintained close relationships with leading international arbitration and research institutions and world renowned arbitration experts. BAC’s invitation of Mr. Gary Born as the keynote speaker and joint organization of this seminar with HKIAC and the Law School of Tsinghua University intended to spread the ideas and experiences on the forefront of international commercial arbitration, expand the vision of domestic commercial arbitration practitioners, promote the overall development of domestic commercial arbitration, as well as deepen the level of cooperation between BAC and relevant international arbitration and research institutions. BAC welcomes arbitrators, arbitration practitioners and anyone who is interested in diverse dispute resolutions to participate in the following BAC events.