Publish time: Wed May 25 11:20:21 CST 2016
On May 13 2016, the “55th Commercial Arbitration Practice Training for Beijing Bar Applicants: Mock Arbitration” organized by the Beijing Arbitration Commission / the Beijing International Arbitration Center (the “BAC/BIAC”) jointly with the Beijing Lawyers Association and the College of Continuing Education of China University of Political Science and Law was successfully hosted at the BAC/BIAC. This training is aimed to provide a precious learning opportunity to those soon-to-be lawyers by the way of zero-distance participation, observation and communication in arbitral proceedings, so as to further improve lawyers’ experience and skills in dispute resolution. This mock arbitration was conducted on the basis of a real financial case that has been dealt with and awarded by the BAC/BIAC with the disputed amount of 150 million RMB, edited and developed in combination with the BAC/BIAC’s past practical experience, with considerable innovation by the cooperative efforts of the bar applicants. Appearing to be a simple loan mortgage contract dispute, the substantive issue of the case was to reflect the arbitration’s openness to financing activities within the financial industry. The active thinking and innovation, the unique design of observation and objection to jurisdiction, the exchange of verbal swords during the examination of evidence and the flexible argument during the debate enriched the content of this mock arbitration both procedurally and substantively, and made the whole event a wonderful success.
The Mock Arbitration
In view of the aim of this Commercial Arbitration Practice Training, and in combination with the nature of case study of mock arbitration, the BAC/BIAC made an in-depth preparation and arrangement in the organization of this event. The arbitral tribunal of this training consisted of Ms Fei Anling, Professor of Civil and Commercial Law and Dean of School of Juris Master of China University of Political Science and Law, acting as the presiding arbitrator, and Ms Kang Le, GM of Risk Management and Compliance Dept. of China Life Investment Holding Co., Ltd. and Ms Yu Zehong, Chief Supervisor of Groupama AVIC Property Insurance Co., Ltd. and former judgment of Beijing Higher People’s Court, acting as co-arbitrators as appointed by the claimant and the respondent respectively. The ordinary procedure was applied in the case. All the three arbitrators of the tribunal are members of the BAC/BIAC’s financial law group, who have strong expertise in risk management and dispute resolution in financial industry and considerable influence and right of discourse within their respective fields. Meanwhile, Mr Zhang Haoliang, Director of the BAC/BIAC’s 3rd Business Division was invited to be the commentator for this event. The trainers above were well collocated with each other from perspectives of college professor, senior judge, in-house counsel and arbitral institution, in order to provide the trainees with a sufficient observation of arbitral practice from all aspects and multi-angle vision.
Pre-hearing training The arbitral tribunal
As a practice training, the event fully stressed the presentation and innovation of the arbitral hearing, integrated and all-round promotion of the trainees’ participation, as well as zero-distance and face-to-face participation in, observation of and communication on arbitration practice on the basis of extensive interaction. For this purpose, Mr Chu Ouya, Case Manager of the BAC/BIAC gave a half-day pre-hearing training to the trainees, which was a systematic lecture on the distinction between arbitration and litigation, the process of arbitral proceedings, skills in hearings, and dos and don’ts for lawyers when representing clients in arbitration. The organizer and the attendees jointly innovated under the BAC/BIAC Arbitration Rules, supplementing and adjusting a number of proceedings on the ground of basic information and arranging sections such as objection to jurisdiction, amendment to claims, auditing, arbitration-mediation, several rounds of debate, not only a reflection of the trainees’ mastering of arbitral proceedings, but also their adeptness in modern commercial arbitration mechanism. In addition, the section of pre-hearing deliberation unveiled the mystery of arbitral tribunal to the trainees, showing the tribunal’s basic judgment and consideration of the dispute, whereby the trainees could understand the tribunal’s primary concerns and trial thinking. More than that, throughout the hearing, the tribunal, based on its extensive trial experience and solid professional expertise, properly conducted the proceedings, accurately focused on the core issues in dispute, and fully unfolded arbitration’s unique features of procedural flexibility, expertized case handling and respect to party autonomy as a form of alternative dispute resolution.
The trainees
The soon-to-be lawyers reaped even more benefits from the comment section. All the tribunal members spoke high of the trainees who attended the mock arbitration hearing, and also pointed out the imperfections in their performance. The pertinent comments as follows have contributed to their future growth: the pre-hearing preparation should be more sufficient and stressed on collection of key evidence; the argument and debate should be conducted around the factual and legal parts of the core issues; answers to the tribunal’s questions in their investigation should be cautious and careful; lawyers should fully focus themselves with flexibility throughout the hearing and so forth. Both on the macro strategy or on the details of words and acts, the tribunal delivered comments closely to the points in connection with the mock arbitration.
Mr Zhang Haoliang then made a closing speech. On behalf of the BAC/BIAC secretariat, he firstly expressed sincere thanks to all the trainees and arbitrators for their participation in the training, and affirmed that the training has realized its expected result, which was to fully highlight the substance and keystones of commercial arbitration, namely the free, open, impartial commercial spirit and commercial thinking. Moreover, Mr Zhang shared with the trainees various essential content such as the understanding and usage of industry practice in arbitration, the respect to and the dealing with the pursuit of efficiency of commercial rationality, the advantages of commercial arbitration and the value of legal profession community. As last, the 55th Commercial Arbitration Practice Training came to a successful end with warm applause of all the attendees.
Comments by arbitral tribunal and Mr Zhang Haoliang
Group photo
Commercial Arbitration Practice Training for Beijing Bar Applicants is one of the BAC/BIAC training series, aiming to promote the lawyers’ in-depth understanding of commercial arbitration and positive interaction between arbitration participants, so as to further the harmonious, healthy and sustainable development of commercial arbitration. We sincerely welcome lawyers and anyone interested in diversified dispute resolution to pay continuous attention to and participate in the BAC/BIAC’s various seminars and colloquia. You are also welcome to receive more relevant information from the BAC/BIAC’s website and WeChat platform.