Belt and Road Dispute Resolution: New Development Trends

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 with a view to promoting regional economic and infrastructural cooperation in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The BRI is a two-faceted cross-border economic strategy, consisting of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road.” It engages the joint effort and participation of six-five countries in the world. As outlined by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in its report dated March 28, 2015, the BRI has five major goals: enhancing policy coordination, facilitating connectivity, removing trade barriers, facilitating financial integration, and building people-to-people bonds. With the dual boost to land and maritime trade and business within the Belt and Road Nations, the BRI fosters market integration in the Asian region and forges new economic ties between China and the global economy. With increasingly robust cross-border trade, commercial disputes would inevitably arise. A solid legal framework is required for resolving increasingly sophisticated commercial disputes. A well-functioning dispute resolution mechanism serves two purposes: First, it is crucial to have an effective and reliable legal framework for ensuring investors’ confidence. Second, in the context of the geographically wide-spanning proposal, a legal framework which is compatible across the Belt and Road countries is of paramount importance to enhance certainty and coherence of the application of laws. This report aims to discuss the impacts of the BRI on dispute resolution, namely (1) arbitration and; (2) the courts. In Part II, it is argued that the BRI provides a unique opportunity to harmonize the private international laws in Asia and in particular, to reconciliate the notoriously indeterminate “public policy exception” to arbitral enforcement. Part III introduces the China International Commercial Courts (CICC), and explores its features and challenges.