reformingchinesearbitrationlaw.docVIP

Reforming Chinese Arbitration Law and Practices in the Global Economy Zhao Xiuwen* Lisa A. Kloppenberg** China has taken significant steps toward integrating the Chinese economy into the global economy since its accession to the World Trade Organization in 1991. Like its economy, China’s arbitration system has faced immense growth and accompanying challenges. Arbitration law is a relatively new body of law that is developing rapidly as commercial ventures between Chinese and non-Chinese parties proliferate. China has a long history of mediation and conciliation, based in part on Confucian principles of comity and accord with others in commercial transactions and personal relationships. Given the continued influence of Confucian culture on politics, business, and cultural transactions in modern China, and the advantages of arbitration perceived by many parties involved in international business around the globe, arbitration has become a frequently selected and more viable dispute resolution option in China in recent decades. The role of law and the legal profession has also expanded significantly since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late–1970s. The number of lawyers and judges has increased dramatically in the post-Mao era; litigation and administrative actions have similarly expanded. Lawyers have become more professionalized and specialized, with greater independence. Many legal norms have been codified and publicized, as the government encouraged a more robust legal system to spur development of China’s socialist market economy, international investment in China and foreign trade. Domestic contract arbitration was sparsely used and highly controlled by such governmental bodies like the Administration for Industry and Commerce from the 1950s through the 1970s. International commercial ventures between Chinese and non-Chinese parties increased from 1979-1991 under the open door policy and its newly decentralized economy, which allowed more C