The Higher People’s Court of Hainan Province launched the Notice on the Pilot Program for Centralized Jurisdiction over Judicial Review Cases on Ad Hoc Arbitration. This document aims to regulate six categories of judicial review cases concerning ad hoc arbitration, which will be subject to applications by parties and assigned to the Haikou Maritime Court or the First Intermediate People’s Court of Hainan Province for jurisdiction.

The Notice defines ad hoc arbitration as that conducted in Hainan Free Trade Port or with Hainan Free Trade Port as the place of arbitration, according to the “Several Provisions of the Hainan Free Trade Port on the Development of International Commercial Arbitration”.

The six categories of judicial review cases covered by the Notice include:

1.Applications for confirmation of the validity of ad hoc arbitration agreements;

2.Applications for revocation of ad hoc arbitration awards;

3.Applications for enforcement of ad hoc arbitration awards where the domicile or property location of the respondent is within the Hainan Free Trade Port;

4.Applications for property preservation or evidence preservation before or during ad hoc arbitration procedures when the property or evidence is located within the Hainan Free Trade Port;

5.Applications for support in gathering evidence during ad hoc arbitration procedures; and

6.Other judicial review cases related to ad hoc arbitration.

For the above-mentioned cases, upon application by the parties, the following courts shall have jurisdiction:

·Cases involving maritime and commercial disputes, international multimodal transport contract disputes, and aviation-related disputes under the pilot jurisdiction of the Haikou Maritime Court shall be under the jurisdiction of the Haikou Maritime Court.

·Other civil and commercial disputes shall be under the jurisdiction of the Hainan First Intermediate Peopl’'s Court.

Exceptions apply to cases stipulated otherwise by laws, regulations, judicial interpretations, and the Supreme People’s Court. The pilot period lasts for two years, and the Notice is effective from September 18, 2024.

(Source: Hainan High People’s Court)