Publish time: Wed Dec 07 18:13:12 CST 2016
On Nov 22 2016, the 4th International Arbitration Conference 2016 co-hosted by the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (the “ACICA”), the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (the “CIArb”) was held in the Federal Court of Australia as a part of the Sydney Arbitration Week. This event was themed “New Horizons in International Arbitration”, where renowned international arbitration experts were invited to conduct discussions on cutting-edge issues concerning international arbitration. As the only invited Chinese arbitration institution, the Beijing Arbitration Commission / Beijing International Arbitration Center (the “BAC”) dispatched its delegation to attend this event led by its Deputy Secretary General Dr. Chen Fuyong.
In the panel discussion on “International Arbitration in the Asia Pacific Region” in the morning, Dr. Chen delivered a keynote speech themed “Inside and Outside the Rules: BAC’s International Arbitration Practice”. In his speech, Dr. Chen referred to the PRC Arbitration Law and the BAC’s Arbitration Rules 2015, and presented to the attendees the development of international arbitration in China in recent years, in particular the BAC’s international arbitration practice. He specifically highlighted the BAC’s series endeavors in embracing the trend of international arbitration development and following up with international arbitration practice tendency, such as the effective reforms in the language and seat of arbitration, the arbitrators’ fees, interim measures, emergency arbitrator, consolidation of arbitrations that have drawn close attention within the arbitral community, so as to provide the arbitration rules with sufficient and inclusiveness to meet the expectations of different international arbitration users. The attendees expressed high praise for the BAC’s quick growth in international arbitration, and fully acknowledged the BAC’s flexibility in its arbitration rules and openness and inclusiveness in its practice. This session was moderated by Caroline Kenny QC, Vice-President of CIArb, other speakers included Mr. Gary Born, President of the SIAC Court of Arbitration, and Prof. David Williams, Barrister of New Zealand.
Dr.
Chen Fuyong’s keynote speech
Panel
discussion
In the closing session of the event in that afternoon, Dr. Chen delivered a closing speech entitled “Learning by Doing: BAC’s Road to Internationalization” at the invitation of Mr. Alex Baykitch, President of the ACICA. He firstly expressed the BAC’s consistent close attention to the China-Australia exchange on arbitration, and introduced the BAC’s efforts in promoting the ICCA 2018 conference in mainland China as the Diamond sponsor of the ICCA 2018, jointly with the ACICA that is the host of this grand event. Next, Dr. Chen revealed the BAC’s measures to make itself into a platform of exchange and research on international arbitration. In particular, he highlighted the Commercial Dispute Resolution in China: An Annual Review and Preview (2016) series organized by the BAC and the overseas launch events based on such annual reports. He pointed out that the BAC’s efforts in building this brand project is aiming to open a window for international legal practitioners to learn about dispute resolution in China, and to build a bridge for Chinese and foreign practitioners to better communicate with each other. Apart from that, he also introduced the Beijing Arbitration Quarterly, the BAC Translation Series, the BAC Scholarship, the BAC International Internship Project and so forth. Meanwhile, he warmly welcomed Australian colleagues to participate in and benefit from the internationalization process of the BAC and the Chinese arbitration.
Closing speech by Dr. Chen Fuyong
China and Australia share a close link in economy and trade. And this was furthered by the Free Trade Agreement officially executed between China and Australia on June 17 2015. Since 2005, the BAC has accepted 21 international cases involving Australian factors. In part of such cases, English was chosen as the language of arbitration, and arbitration rules of other arbitration institutions were selected to administrate the proceedings. No Australian attorney or arbitrator has been engaged therein though. Therefore, it is exactly the time to strengthen the exchange on arbitration between the two states and to promote the mutual understanding and mutual trust between arbitration practitioners of the two states. Many attendees said that Dr. Chen’s speech helped them fully understand the status quo and the great potential of Chinese arbitration, and they expected that the BAC would play an increasingly important role in future Chinese and foreign exchanges on arbitration.
BAC Delegation with attendees
In addition to the event, the BAC Delegation had a lunchtime talk with teachers and students of the University of New South Wales (the “UNSW”) Law School at the invitation of the UNSW China International Business and Economic Law (the “CIBEL”) Center. The talk was moderated by Prof. Colin Picker, Director of the CIBEL Center. Dr. Chen took an empirical analysis approach to introduce the up-to-date development of Chinese arbitration and Chinese courts’ judicial supervision over arbitration, by presenting statistics about Chinese arbitration, and then had an extensive and in-depth exchange with the teachers and students.
Lunchtime talk at UNSW