Publish time: Tue Jul 18 09:24:33 CST 2017
The UNCITRAL Congress in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of UNCITRAL has been held between July 4th and 6th 2017 at the Vienna International Center. As an observer, the Beijing Arbitration Commission (the “BAC”) dispatched its delegation led by Dr. Chen Fuyong to attend this congress.
Themed with “Modernization and Sustainable Development of Trade”, the congress considered UNCITRAL’s potential to support cross-border commerce, including the development of the cross-border digital economy, finance in international trade, access to global supply chains and inputs (credit, transport, infrastructure) and dispute resolution. Meanwhile, the congress also considered ways to enhance UNCITRAL’s role in coordinating and cooperating in relevant work of other organizations, methods of international law-making and the use of UNCITRAL texts in practice. Enriched with extensive discussion, the conference was a fruitful event.
The congress
On the morning of July 4th, Mr. H,E Wolfgang Brandstetter, representative of the Legal Dept. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria, delivered the opening speech. He firstly expressed warm congratulations to the 50th anniversary of UNCITRAL, and said that Austria has rich historical heritages with its 2,500 years history, and the Austrian government has been in support of UNCITRAL’s various events and endeavored to promote UNCITRAL’s development, to support small- and medium-sized enterprises, to resolve commercial disputes and to help conduct cross-border transactions.
Delegations and observer delegations from more than 100 member states attended this congress. Mr. Li Chenggang, Minister Assistant of the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC warmly congratulated the 50th anniversary of UNCITRAL on behalf of the Chinese government, and expressed high recognition of UNCITRAL’s rich achievement during the past half century as well as its significant promotion to the development of economy and trade. He reviewed the historical process of the PRC’s joining the UNCITRAL, clarified China’s efforts in promoting the refinement of the UNCITRAL legal system, and pointed out that under a background of economic globalization, it will be hard for any individual state to seek development on its own, and each individual action to achieve great success, thus every state should share its experience of economic development so as to create new opportunities and to explore new room for further development. China raised the Belt and Road Initiative, and stuck to the principle of joint consultation, joint sharing and joint construction, in the hope of realizing the connection of each state’s developing strategy and building a community of shared interest, responsibility and destiny. China expects that the UNCITRAL could, on the one hand, strengthen the promotion of existing texts, and on the other hand, make new rules with respect to the new situations of international economy and trade. China is willing to participate and share its experience, and to contribute to the promotion of free international trade and investment, interconnection and interworking, as well as joint prosperity.
Mr. Li Chenggang
Thereafter, representatives from different delegations and NGOs of different areas, and experts and scholars of various expertise exchanged their views and brainstormed on the worldwide influence of UNCITRAL texts as well as the opportunities and challenges thereof. Mr. Rimsky Yuen SC, Secretary for Justice of Hong Kong SAR, made a keynote speech on innovative means of law making. He pointed out that in light of the unprecedented speed, scale and influence of technical development, it will be not easy to reach consensus, and traditional international law making methods are insufficient to meet such challenges. Thus it is necessary to reconsider the operation of international law making, and since it will need some time before new international law making, different states should strengthen their connection for free flow of information. Mr. Mohamed Y. Mattar, Director of Qatar University Law School, shared with the attendees the influence in Arabic states brought by the UNCITRAL Model Law, and fully affirmed the guiding significance of the UNCITRAL Model Law. He pointed out that Qatar promulgated new Arbitration Act in 2017 with the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law. Saudi Arab approved the Model Law in 2012, which means its new Arbitration Act was established on the ground of the Model Law basis and framework, whereby the Model Law is referred to support and interpret its national law, and the Model Law is accepted and applied with reservation provided that it is not against its national law and public policy.
On the second day, the discussion was still focused on modernization and sustainable development of trade, and stepped into the microscopic area, covering new concept and new issues within the scope of digital economy and credit economy, such as smart contract, blockchain, bitcoin and the like. With regard to blockchain and bitcoin, Mr. Riccardo de Caria from the University of Turin said that “currently there is no uniform concept, and it is necessary to create the jurisprudential concept of blockchain and bitcoin that can be applied worldwide. Facing new problems, we should always keep cautious, move slowly, and learn about the existing law rules with electric means for verification. Finally techniques shall shake off debate, with the integration of practice and theory”. Mr. Abhinayan Basu Bal from the Gothenburg University pointed out when speaking of the finance in supply chain that “the supply chain is an electric platform aiming at the flow between substantial economy and capital chain. Financial resolution should be integrated into the support to small- and medium-sized enterprises, by which to find the best financing resolution between the providers and the clients, since small- and medium-sized enterprises are often the third or even fourth echelon providers and are in need of capital operation. For the purpose of sustainable development, it is highly important to think about how to promote the open finance to small- and medium-sized enterprises and how to manage the flow of information, so as to build an open system that adopts small- and medium-sized enterprises”.
In fact, during the 46th Session of the UNCITRAL in 2013, the Commission has requested the Working Group to initiate the works for the reduction of legal obstacles throughout the lifecycle of those micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. In that session, the commission also made sure that such works should firstly focus on the simplification of company registration procedure. The commission then reiterated this entrustment between the 47th Session in 2014 and the 49th Session in 2016, and continued to deliberate legal issues in relation to the simplification of establishment procedure and rules on company registration, endeavoring to minimize legal obstacles throughout the lifecycle of those micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. The Work Group of the 49th Session in 2016 determined to draft legislation guidance on the two issues respectively. In this congress, audiences have had in-depth and rewarding discussion thereon.
 |
 |
|
Discussion and exchange |
|
As commented by Ms. Janet Martinez from the Stanford University Law School, there is always a price for the development of trade, and any new development will bring new hidden troubles and disputes. On July 6, the discussion on dispute resolution convened. Audiences had heated discussion on issues such as international investment arbitration, online arbitration and international commercial arbitration. The BAC, as a dispute resolution institution, attended this congress as an observer, and endeavored to explore the cutting-edge dispute resolution mechanism and to provide more and better dispute resolution services. Dr. Chen Fuyong, Deputy Secretary General of the BAC, had a brief sharing with other audiences with respect to the development of mediation in arbitration in China during the session on new border of dispute resolution. He also expressed that if UNCITRAL intends to regulate the approach of Arb-Med, the BAC will be willing to offer a draft clause for discussion based on the summary of the Chinese practice experience.
Dr. Chen Fuyong participated in the discussion on dispute resolution
Dr. Chen Fuyong had discussion with Mr. Gary Born and Ms. S.I.Strong
On the afternoon of July 6, the three days conference came to its end. As a sub-topic, the amendment and development of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (the “CISG”) have been discussed extensively. Speakers fully affirmed the guiding significance of the Model Law and the CISG among the member states, and meanwhile appointed out that with the rapid development of trading modernization, new problems have been constantly emerging and the old provisions have been insufficient to deal with all such new problems, thus will UNCITRAL make new rules or refine the old rules? Prof. Jiang Zuoli from the Shandong University made a humorous comment that “CISG is old, yet I am even older than it. My feeling is that people always forget old people. Although CISG has become insufficient to deal with new problems, I would not suggest to discard it and to make new rules, which is of low practicality. I would suggest to make dynamic interpretation and legislation guidance on CISG to get it refined and improved, so as to deal with each member state’s new problems in international trade of goods”.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Renaud Sorieul, Secretary General of UNCITRAL, highly recognized the works of UNCITRAL Work Groups and the Secretariat, and delivered thanks to representatives of each member states for their efforts and explorations. He expected that UNCITRAL sticks to its openness and inclusiveness, and make new contributions to the modernization and sustainable development of global trade. This is the second time the BAC attends UNCITRAL events at invitation as an observer. In this sunny July, UNCITRAL celebrated its 50th birthday at the riverbank of Danube, looking forward to inheriting past traditions and breaking new grounds for the future. The BAC as a leading Chinese dispute resolution institution and a newly emerging force at UNCITRAL, will duly carry out its assignment and continue its exploration, and take great effort to compose a new chapter for international dispute resolution industry.
BAC delegation