Beijing Arbitration Commission

      The Hong Kong Summit co-hosted by the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) was held between May 12 and May 14, 2015 in Hong Kong. The summit was themed ”Bridging Culture, Connecting Future”, aiming to assemble leaders and elites within the international dispute resolution community, and to conduct in-depth dialogues on new trends of international dispute resolution in the present situation. More than 300 international arbitration experts, senior judges, renowned lawyers and scholars from over 10 jurisdictions participated this event.

      As the Platinum Sponsor of the summit, the Beijing Arbitration Commission /Beijing International Arbitration Center (BAC/ BIAC) dispatched a delegation led by its Deputy Secretary General Dr. Chen Fuyong and consisted of Deputy Director Mr. Zhang Haoliang, Case Managers Ms. Wu Wendi and Ms. Wang Ruihua to attend the event. This is another active measure of the BAC/ BIAC for furthering its internationalization and global influence.

      The conference formally convened on May 13 at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. Ms. Teresa Cheng SC, Chairperson of the HKIAC and Prof. Albert Jan van den Berg, Chairman of the ICCA made opening addresses respectively. They introduced the subjects for discussion on the conference, and specifically delivered cordial thanks to sponsors headed by the BAC/ BIAC. Thereafter, speakers contributed heated discussion and impressive speeches on frontier and hot issues within the international commercial industry such as ”Does the New York Convention do more harm than good to developing economies?”, ”New Regionalism and South-South Trade”, ”Transparency in International Commercial Arbitration: the Way of the Future or the Beginning of the End?”, ”Do anti-corruption investigations and anti-bribery legislation influence or affect international arbitration?”, ”Looking into the Future: Challenges to Investment Across Borders”. The witty dialogues and valuable insights brought the audience deeper understanding of the 1958 New York Convention’s facilitation to and improvement of international commerce and trade, as well as the new trends of international arbitration, arousing constant echoes with the audiences.

The Summit

      As the organizer of the Commercial Dispute Resolution in China: Annual Review and Preview which has been published for two consecutive years both in China and abroad, the BAC has also been known as the BIAC, the Beijing International Arbitration Center, ever since its Arbitration Rules 2015 coming into force on April 1, 2015. During the event, the BAC/ BIAC has won extensive attention from the international arbitration community. Led by Dr. Chen Fuyong, the BAC/ BIAC delegation has had in-depth exchanges of view with international arbitration experts, scholars and practitioners, who have highly regarded BAC/ BIAC’s adoption of international commercial arbitration practice into its new Arbitration Rules, its close attention to the user-friendliness of its arbitration services, and its overall integration into the trends of international commercial arbitration, and have genuinely appreciated BAC/ BIAC’s efforts in strengthening the international competitiveness and building the international image of Chinese arbitration.

Communication between BAC/ BIAC delegation and participants

      During the stay in Hong Kong, Dr. Chen Fuyong led the BAC/ BIAC delegation to visit a number of legal entities, including the Department of Justice of Hong Kong SAR Government, Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance LLP, Baker & McKenzie, Smyth & Co, Mayer Brown JSM, Fangda Partners and so forth. On behalf of the BAC/ BIAC, Dr. Chen extended thanks for their valuable remarks for the revision of BAC/ BIAC Arbitration Rules in the past two years, and introduced the BAC/ BIAC’s positive exploration and rewarding promotion of its diversified development and internationalization. Meanwhile, the BAC/ BIAC delegation had an extensive and deep communication with the dispute resolution groups of those firms as to how the BAC/ BIAC could better meet the requirements and expectations of international arbitration users.

Communication between BAC/ BIAC delegation and participants

      During the conference, the ICCA Judiciary Committee held its first meeting. It is the first time the ICCA Judiciary Committee chose Hong Kong as the meeting place since its establishment, purporting to promote the communication on arbitration between East and West. Meanwhile, the hosting institutions has specifically invited a delegation composed of senior judges from mainland China to the summit. Led by Judge Luo Dongchuan, Chief Judge of the Fourth Civil Division of the Supreme People’s Court of PRC, the delegation delivered keynote speeches, unveiling the pro-arbitration measures adopted by Chinese courts to the international arbitration community, aiming to improve the recognition and understanding thereof in respect of the legal and judicial environment of Chinese arbitration. The lectures won thunderous applause for the open mind of the judiciary of mainland China.

      The ICCA is a worldwide non-profit non-governmental organization authorized by the United Nations, and one of the most authoritative international organizations in the field of commercial arbitration. So far there has been over 1,000 members registered with ICCA who are top international arbitration experts. The ICCA sticks to its fundamental principles of “Cooperation，Diversity，Mentorship，Inclusiveness”, and endeavors to promote the resolution of international commercial disputes by arbitration, mediation, and other ADR mechanisms, and has played an active role in the making of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Arbitration Rules, UNCITRAL Mediation Rules and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. The BAC/ BIAC has been the Silver Sponsor of the 22nd ICCA Congress held in 2014 in Miami. This time, as the Platinum Sponsor, the BAC/ BIAC provided full range of support to the summit hosted jointly by the ICCA and the HKIAC, and once again established the international image of Chinese arbitration. The BAC/ BIAC has also taken a further step by becoming the Gold Sponsor of the 23rd ICCA Congress to be held in 2016 in Mauritius. This congress will be the first ICCA conference hosted in Africa. This is believed to be another endeavor of the BAC/ BIAC in hope of strengthening the communication between China and Africa on dispute resolution.