On 18 May 2021, the High-end Round-table Conference on International Commercial Legal Services and the Symposium on Safeguarding International Commercial Legal Services for the Post-Epidemic Era under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was held in Xi’an. Gao Xiaoli (高晓力), the First Deputy Director of the 6th Circuit Court of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and Judge of China International Commercial Court (CICC), introduced the practices and development of CICC at the conference.
CICC was established in 2018, The First International Commercial Court was established in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and the Second International Commercial Court was established in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.
In terms of adjudicating foreign-related commercial cases, there are differences between CICC and other Chinese courts:
- CICC, as the permanent adjudication organ established by the SPC, closes cases after the first-instance trial.
- The minority opinions on the adjudication may be expressly stated in the judicial instruments.
- If the evidentiary materials submitted by the parties are in English, they don’t have to submit a Chinese translation after obtaining the consent of the other party.
- For investigating, collecting evidence and organizing cross-examination, the audio transmission technology and other information network methods may be adopted.
- It is allowed to register a case, pay the bills, read the materials, exchange the evidence, serve the court instruments, and attend the hearing, etc via the Internet.
- The parties may apply to CICC for enforcement of the binding judgments, rulings and mediation statements which it renders.
- For judgments, rulings and mediation statements that have become legally binding, the parties may apply to the SPC for retrial.
In accordance with the statistics, as of May 2021, CICC has accepted 18 international commercial cases involving parties from the United States, Japan, Italy, the Philippines, Thailand, the British Virgin Islands and other countries/ regions, and has concluded eight cases.
At the same time, CICC adheres to the principle of diversified dispute resolution and creates a “one-stop” international commercial dispute resolution mechanism integrating litigation, arbitration and mediation. Among the eight cases already concluded, five cases involve arbitration.
Cover Photo by 花茶 利酒 (https://unsplash.com/@scentedtea_wine) on Unsplash