On 21 May 2025, the Beijing International Commercial Tribunal (BICT) concluded its first circuit trial at the International Commercial Arbitration Center (Beijing), ruling in court to dismiss the motion by an offshore company (ECS) to invalidate an arbitration agreement. This case marks the first circuit trial conducted by China’s local international commercial courts/tribunals.
The dispute centered on whether ECS, an offshore company, was bound by the arbitration clause in the “2020 Shareholders Agreement”. ECS claimed that the agreement had been replaced by the “2021 Shareholders Agreement”, which ECS did not sign. The court, based on the principle of arbitration clause independence, held that despite differences in the signatories, the consistency of the arbitration clause content meant that changes in substantive rights and obligations did not affect its validity, and the arbitration clause in the “2020 Shareholders Agreement” remained valid for ECS.
According to data from the BICT, the average trial period for confirming the validity of arbitration agreements is 38.33 days, 26.57 days faster than the previous year — while foreign-related arbitration preservation reviews take just 5 days. The court has so far recognized and enforced 32 foreign arbitral awards, including those from international institutions such as the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
This circuit trial took place at the International Commercial Arbitration Center (Beijing), a physical platform launched in 2022 that integrates multiple dispute resolution services such as mediation, arbitration, and litigation.
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