Publish time: Thu May 12 17:38:53 CST 2016
On April 28 2016, the 2nd Arbitrator Workshop of 2016 (Sum No. 124) hosted by the Beijing Arbitration Commission / the Beijing International Arbitration Center (the “BAC”) was successfully convened at the BAC conference hall. Entitled “Legal Thinking in Arbitration”, the workshop was moderated by the BAC Deputy Secretary General Dr. Chen Fuyong, and Prof. Liang Huixing, the Chairperson of the BAC, made a keynote presentation. More than 100 arbitrators of the BAC attended the event, and Mr. Liu Zhengang, Director of the Legal Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government, was also present along with his colleagues.
Prof. Liang Huixing
Dr. Chen Fuyong
Dr. Chen Fuyong delivered a warm welcome to the attendees, and delivered a brief opening speech. Thereafter, Prof. Liang Huixing made a profound, intelligible and extensive presentation based on his academic expertise and practical experience. On macroscopic level, Prof. Liang introduced the concept of legal thinking in arbitration in combination with the “rule of law” thought promoted by the Chinese central government. He pointed out that justice should be the core value of any and all arbitration institutions, as well as the guiding standard for the healthy development of arbitration in China, and the ultimate aim of legal thinking in arbitration is to realize both the social justice and the legal justice of the arbitral awards by strictly applying law rules and clearly summarizing the legal relationships in arbitration cases.
Prof. Liang then turned to a microscopic perspective, made an in-depth analysis on the application of legal thinking in arbitration practice combining the methodology of case analysis and specific practical issues. He clarified in detail the method of analyzing the foundations of claim and defense, the scope of investigation by arbitral tribunals, and the significance of legal logic to legal thinking. Furthermore, he analyzed the similarities and differences in practice between mandatory provisions with influence on the validity of contracts and those administratively mandatory provisions by interpreting sample provisions of PRC Contract Law and PRC Company Law, and also addressed on the legal interpretation sequence and the method of filling legal loopholes. Prof. Liang’s presentation was practice-oriented, rich in content and of guiding significance to arbitrators’ case handling.
The Workshop
The presentation was well received by the attending arbitrators, who actively raised questions to and had further communication with Prof. Liang in respect of issues in connection with his presentation, such as the determination on the amount of liquidation damages, the distinction between administrative contracts and civil contracts, the realistic consideration of procedural justice and substantive justice, on which Prof. Liang shared his experience and viewpoints. At last, Dr. Chen Fuyong summed up this event and reminded the arbitrators that legal thinking should be applied not only in dealing with their arbitration cases, but also when making comments on other arbitration cases, so as to avoid partial and arbitrary views.
With warm applause of attendees, the workshop came to a successful end. The BAC staffs will sort out the materials for arbitrators’ information.
Q&A session
The arbitrator workshop is a series seminar and colloquia of the BAC, aiming to build a platform for its arbitrators to share their case handling skills and methods, and to discuss hot topics of legislation, judiciary and specific industries. Part of the workshops are also available to professionals who are not the BAC arbitrators. You are welcome to pay attention to BAC’s website and WeChat platform for more relevant information.