Reforming Judicial Supervision of Chinese Arbitration

Abstract

Abstract Balancing arbitration autonomy and sovereignty supervision is the essential rhythm of international arbitration development. Influenced by the international trend of relaxing national judicial supervision, the Chinese judicial system, led by the Chinese Supreme People’s Court (SPC), has promoted a series of judicial reforms to coordinate domestic arbitration and international practice. This article elaborates the SPC’s recent reforms of the Chinese mechanisms of arbitration judicial supervision. The article first explores the international trend of the restraint of the national judicial supervision of arbitration. Then, the article introduces how such a trend impacts China’s recent reforms of its arbitration judicial supervision. By focusing on the rules established by the SPC regarding the judicial review of both international and domestic arbitral awards, this article exposes the essential factors and corresponding solutions that hinder the efficiency of the judicial supervision of Chinese arbitration.