Foreign lis alibi pendens, Non-Chinese Majority Tribunals and Other Problems of Neutrality in CIETAC Arbitration

Abstract

FOR THE past decade, China's International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (‘CIETAC’ or the ‘Commission’), has been moving away from the Soviet arbitration model on which it was based1 towards rules and procedures in keeping with European and Norm American arbitration institutions. The steps in this evolution have included significant amendment of the CIETAC Rules in 1988 and again in 1994 as well as CIETAC's efforts to see that reports of some of its arbitrations are published. Perhaps most important, beginning in 1989 and again in 1994, CIETAC expanded its list of approved arbitrators to include over 80 non-PRC nationals from over 20 countries.2 In the autumn of 1995, CIETAC made another, albeit less public, advance in this development with case M94209 Laser Cutting Machine Contract Dispute Arbitration between the China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (‘China National’) and a United States exporter, Sida Corporation. The Sida...