Legislative Research by Shanghai People's Congress: How to Build a Global Asia Pacific Arbitration Center
The international credibility, competitiveness, and influence of Shanghai arbitration have significantly improved, and Shanghai is committed to becoming a global Asia Pacific arbitration center. On September 14th, some members of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress conducted on-site research on the Shanghai International Dispute Resolution Center and the Shanghai International Arbitration Conference, and held a legislative research symposium on the "Regulations on Promoting the Construction of International Commercial Arbitration Centers in Shanghai".
The meeting heard reports from the Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Municipal High Court on supporting and promoting the construction of the International Commercial Arbitration Center. In recent years, arbitration has made significant progress in Shanghai, with the number of arbitration cases increasing year by year. Famous overseas arbitration institutions have successively settled in Shanghai, making it an important window for international arbitration to enter China and for Chinese arbitration to enter the world. In 2022, the city's arbitration institutions accepted 8306 cases, a year-on-year increase of 6%; For the first time, the target amount has exceeded 100 billion yuan, and Shanghai has become one of the top ten most popular international arbitration destinations in the world.
At present, the construction of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center has entered a new stage, and the construction of an international first-class legal business environment has also put forward new and higher requirements for the innovative development of the arbitration system. The reporter learned that the "Regulations on Promoting the Construction of International Commercial Arbitration Centers in Shanghai" will be submitted for review, striving to introduce arbitration system rules that are in line with international norms such as temporary arbitration and arbitration venues, further enhancing Shanghai's cross-border arbitration service capabilities and international competitiveness.
It is reported that there are currently 3 local arbitration institutions, 1 international organization arbitration institution business institution, and 4 representative offices of overseas arbitration institutions in Shanghai, including the International Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong International Arbitration Center, Singapore International Arbitration Center, and South Korea Korean Commercial Arbitration Court. It has become one of the cities with the most concentrated and abundant arbitration institution resources in the world.
At present, our city has established the Shanghai International Arbitration Expert Database, which has released two batches of 65 expert lists to cultivate and select leading talents in local arbitration, and recommended 5 experts to serve as arbitrators and mediators for the World Intellectual Property Organization. Many representatives have talked about attracting outstanding arbitrators with international influence to participate in the construction of the Shanghai International Commercial Arbitration Center. At present, the arbitration institution in this city has 3765 registered arbitrators, of which 870 are overseas arbitrators from 118 countries and regions worldwide, accounting for 23%. It has become one of the mainland cities with the highest number of registered arbitrators covering countries and overseas professionals.
In order to provide high-quality dispute resolution services, arbitration institutions in this city have established professional arbitration platforms such as the Financial Arbitration Court, the Intellectual Property Arbitration Court, the International Shipping Arbitration Court, the Free Trade Zone Arbitration Court, the International Aviation Arbitration Court, and the China Africa Joint Arbitration Center. They have formulated professional dispute resolution rules such as the Free Trade Zone Arbitration Rules, the Aviation Arbitration Rules, and the Green Dispute Expert Review Demonstration Rules. They have also established a digital arbitration service system that covers the entire process of filing, trial, hearing, evaluation, and arbitration, striving to improve the level of arbitration work and better meet the needs of high-quality economic and social development and "going out" enterprises and cross-border business entities.
Zhou Huilin, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, participated in legislative research.