On January 16, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of P. R.C released 10 typical cases of judicial review of arbitration. The released cases demonstrate the new situation and problems faced by the courts in judicial review of arbitration, fully reflecting the their stance of giving equal importance to the support and supervision of arbitration, and actively creating a first-class market-oriented, rule-of-law-oriented and internationalized business environment.

The typical cases include cases of application for recognition and enforcement of foreign and Hong Kong SAR’s arbitral awards, as well as cases of application for setting aside arbitral awards, confirmation of the validity of arbitration agreement, disputes over objection to jurisdictions, etc., and cover sports and financial arbitration, such as the case of Uzbekistan Art Mosaic LLC applying for recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award of the International Commercial Arbitration Court of the Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Billion Ocean International Limited applying for recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center, Daesung Industrial Gases Corporation, Daesung (Guangzhou) Gases CO. Ltd., and Praxair (China) Investment CO. Ltd. applying for confirmation of the validity of arbitration agreement, etc. The disputes vary from validity of the arbitration clause of the online lending platform, disclosure obligations of the arbitrators, arbitration procedures, re-arbitration, public order and morals. 

Three highlights in the typical cases are reported in the media coverage:

1) The courts’ support of the development of international commercial arbitration by recognizing and enforcing arbitral awards rendered outside the mainland China;

2) Clarification of the review standard of frontier difficult issues to unify the judgment criterion;

3) Efforts of strengthening the judicial reviw of arbitration under the law to promote the sound development of arbitration.

The release of typical cases will further unify the benchmark, standardize the discretion power, enhance the quality and efficiency of judicial review of arbitration, and at the same time help to regulate and guide arbitration institutions to deal with arbitration cases in accordance with the law, and continuously promote the credibility and influence of China’s arbitration .

(Source: Official Website of the Legaldaily)