Category Archives: foreign courts

arbitration, BRI, CICC, diversified dispute resolution, foreign courts, international commercial court, judicial interpretations

The Supreme People’s Court’s ongoing contribution to developing foreign-related rule of law (涉外法治)

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Press conference announcing the judicial interpretation on the application of international treaties & international practices

What is the Supreme People’s Court’s (SPC’s) contribution to developing the national strategy of “foreign-related rule of law (涉外法治)”?  My forthcoming article in China Law & Society Review sets out a broad framework for understanding what it is, but inevitably, like all academic works, the specific details will be out of date as soon as it is published. It can only be current as of the last time I was able to make substantial amendments, that is, in November 2023.  The slow process of finalizing the article (particularly the references) meant that I could incorporate references to the Tenth Politburo Study Session on Foreign-Related Rule of Law.  Since then, the SPC has continued to contribute to the national strategy of developing foreign-related rule of law. This blogpost flags those recent developments without duplicating what others have already written.  The recent developments include the SPC issuing the following since October, 2023:

  • judicial interpretations;
  • typical cases; and 
  • other judicial normative documents.

  1.  Judicial Interpretations

A September 2023 press release issued along with the fourth group of Belt & Road typical cases (为高质量共建“一带一路”提供有力司法服务和保障——最高人民法院民四庭负责人就发布第四批涉“一带一路”建设典型案例相关问题答记者问) flagged all of these judicial interpretations,. They were described in this October 2023 blogpost as “forthcoming attractions.”

  • December 2023, Decision of the Supreme People’s Court to Amend the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Establishment of International Commercial Courts(2023).  This LinkedIn post explains the significance of the amendments–primarily to update China International Commercial Court rules to reflect the amended Civil Procedure Law and new provisions on the finding of foreign law in the second interpretation on the application of law to foreign-related civil relations.
  • December 2023, Interpretation by the Supreme People’s Court of Several Issues Concerning the Application of International
    Treaties and International Practices in the Trial of Foreign-Related Civil and Commercial Cases.  The SPC held a press conference (see the photo above) and also issued a related press release (translation here) as well as typical cases (see below).  Justice Wang Shumei (previously the head of the #4 Civil Division) highlighted that this interpretation was needed because the previous provisions on the application of international treaties in the General Principles of Civil Law were abolished when the Civil Code was promulgated, leaving the rules for the application of international treaties unclear.  This LinkedIn post summarizes its content.
  • November 2023 Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law of the
    People’s Republic of China on the Application of Laws to Foreign-Related Civil Relations (II).  As this LinkedIn post details, the focus of the interpretation is on the ascertainment of foreign law.  How to ascertain foreign law has been an outstanding issue, as reflected in articles by SPC judges and several judicial policy documents over the past 10 years.  A paper (Chinese original here) written by CICC expert Xiao Yongping for the 2022 China International Commercial Court appointment ceremony, reviewing cases involving the ascertainment of foreign law flags some of the problems:  “a lack of rules over proof by professional institutions in China has spawned a range of drawbacks, including the vague criteria for determining the admissibility of the opinions of professional institutions, the omission of analysis and reasoning of proof opinions in judgments, and the unclear rules over which party should bear the fees for proof.”

    The interpretation specifies that the burden is on the parties to provide the content of the chosen law if they have a choice-of-law agreement, but it falls to the court to ascertain foreign law if the parties lack a choice-of-law agreement. Other provisions are intended to change the practice of Chinese courts deciding that they cannot ascertain foreign law and it is preferable to apply Chinese law instead. Please see this Library of Congress article for further details.

typical cases

Typical cases are a type of SPC soft law.  They are a tool by which the SPC seeks to unify the judgment (adjudication) standards of the Chinese courts.  They are a means by which the SPC seeks to harmonize the decisions of the Chinese courts to be consistent with SPC policy (or said another way, strengthen the firm guiding hand of the SPC). That guidance can relate to substantive or procedural issues, because the issues that come before the Chinese courts far outpace the infrastructure of existing law, including judicial interpretations.  The number of typical cases relating to arbitration matters therefore also signals that China’s Arbitration Law is insufficient for the current needs of the Chinese courts. Additionally, given the role of the SPC in social governance, typical cases also enable the SPC to do its part to further the latest Party policy, in this instance, the development (construction) of foreign-related rule of law. As highlighted several times on this blog, SPC President Zhang Jun appears to favor using typical cases to guide the lower courts and I expect this website (currently down) is the one that will be repurposed to make various types of typical cases more easily available.

Other judicial normative documents

The document that can be so classified is the  December, 2023  Work Guidelines of the Supreme People’s Court for the One-Stop Diversified International Commercial Dispute Resolution Platform (for Trial Implementation) (One-Stop Platform Guidelines).  Since the China International Commercial Court was established, the SPC has stressed (and the academic world far more!) the innovation of the “One-Stop Platform.”  This new document draws together SPC and lower court experience and thinking on how a “One-Stop Platform” should operate in the Chinese context.  Among other innovations, it has detailed provisions concerning neutral evaluation.  The incorporation of neutral evaluation into the One-Stop Platform Guidelines shows that the SPC (and the Chinese judicial system more generally) continues to make reference to “beneficial foreign/international experience.” 

Concluding Comments

As flagged in several press conferences or press releases issued in recent months, the issuance of these judicial interpretations, typical cases, and other judicial normative documents is linked to the importance the Party leadership places on developing foreign-related rule of law, as illustrated by the November 2023 Politburo study session. As shown by my 1993 article on the SPC, foreign-related matters were historically at the margins of its work.  One old-timer described the #4 Civil Division (the division handling foreign-related civil and commercial matters) to me as “小众“–niche–with a relatively small number of judges and responsible for a more limited range of issues, in comparison to the other SPC civil divisions.

These recent SPC documents taken together, provide insights into the important role of the SPC in developing Chinese law, in this case, foreign-related law–because many important provisions are missing from National People’s Congress (+ its Standing Committee) legislation, it falls to the SPC, through judicial interpretations, typical cases, and documents such as Meeting Minutes/Conference Summaries to fill in the gaps that enable the courts and the Chinese legal system to operate. It should be clear that the SPC is providing some of the basic building blocks for the construction (development) of foreign-related rule of law.
Happy Year of the Dragon to all readers and followers!

 

alternative dispute resolution, arbitration, BRI, CICC, Expert Committee, foreign courts, foreign-related cases, international commercial court, judicial interpretations

New Group of Supreme People’s Court Belt & Road Typical Cases

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At the end of September (2023) the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued its fourth group of Belt & Road (BRI) Typical /Model /Exemplary ) (this post will use the translation “typical”) Cases (第四批涉“一带一路”建设典型案例) (see an alternative link in case the official website is unavailable).  An English translation is available here.  Along with the cases, the SPC issued a press release in the form of answers by a responsible person of the SPC’s #4 Civil Division to a reporter’s questions (为高质量共建“一带一路”提供有力司法服务和保障——最高人民法院民四庭负责人就发布第四批涉“一带一路”建设典型案例相关问题答记者问).

“For the avoidance of doubt,” the points made by these typical cases (please see last year’s blogpost for a refresher on typical cases) apply to all types of foreign-related cases, whether or not they involve the BRI in some way.  Including “BRI” in the title highlights that these cases contribute to supporting the BRI (on the 10th anniversary of the strategy) and developing (“constructing” 建设) “foreign-related rule of law.” I’ll make several quick points about the cases and derive some useful information from the press release.

1.  Typical cases

This group of 12 typical cases includes:

  1. three cases relating to letters of credit and demand guarantees (#3 Jiangsu Puhua Co., Ltd. v. Bank of East Asia (China) Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch; #4 China Power Construction Group Shandong Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. v. GMR KAMALANGA Energy Ltd., et al (the SPC case was mentioned in this blogpost; and #5 Union of Arab and French Banks (UBAF) (Hong Kong) Ltd. [UBAF (Hong Kong) Ltd.] and Bank of China Co., Ltd. Henan Branch);
  2. Two cases involving professional services-related issues (#6 Fusheng (Tianjin) Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. v. Grant Thornton AG (a tort case) and #8 Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co., Ltd. v. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP (contract dispute));
  3. Enforcement of a foreign  (Singapore) court judgment (#12, enforcement application by Shuang Lin Construction Pte. Ltd. ). The SPC and the Singapore Supreme Court have a related memorandum so it is unsurprising that a case involving an application to enforce a Singapore judgment was selected. See this 2023 factsheet with a listing of the other Singapore agreements with the SPC);
  4. Enforcement of foreign and Hong Kong arbitral awards  (#10, China Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Co., Ltd. v.  Russian Sakhalin Seafood Co., Ltd. & Oriental International Economic and Technical Cooperation Company, objection to enforcement case)( #11 Noble Resources International Pte. Ltd.’s application for recognition and enforcement of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center arbitration award);
  5. One case involving the Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), #1, Exportextil Countertrade SA) and Nantong Meinite Medical Products Co., Ltd;
  6. One case involving financial derivatives (#9, Standard Chartered Bank (China) Co., Ltd. v. Zhangjiakou United Petrochemical Co., Ltd.) ;
  7. One equity transfer-related case (#7, a China International Commercial Court case), Zhang Moumou and Xie Moumou v. Shenzhen Aoxinlong Investment Co., Ltd;
  8. One treaty interpretation case (#2, Nippon Property & Casualty Insurance (China) Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch and others and Robinson Global Logistics (Dalian) Co., Ltd).

A 2022 blogpost explains the selection process. I’ll leave the discussion of the implications of these cases to the law firms, some scholars, and some other websites and focus on the takeaways from the press release. The press release updates last year’s report on the SPC’s work in foreign-related cases in support of related policies.

2. Political importance

The press release ties the work of the SPC to the January 2018 Party Central Committee and State Council General Office policy document on BRI dispute resolution (summarized here and discussed further in my “neverending article”) and flags that the SPC has conscientiously implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee.  The one-year gap between the third and fourth groups of typical BRI cases signals that the SPC leadership considers this a priority area. The phrase at the beginning of the press release (“providing powerful judicial services and guarantees (safeguards) for high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”)  signals the continuing importance of providing judicial “services and safeguards” for major national strategies, including the BRI, whether in the form of a document or typical cases.

3. Takeaways From the Press Release

a.  CICC and other international commercial courts

The press release mentions the China International Commercial Court (CICC), its expert committee, and the establishment of local international commercial courts.  The CICC has accepted a total of 27 international commercial cases, 17 of which have been concluded. A judgment was posted in July on the Chinese version of the CICC website but has yet to be translated.

Although the CICC is often linked to the BRI, the cases that the CICC has accepted include parties from jurisdictions that are not participating in the BRI, such as the United States. Among the typical cases released this time, one is a CICC case.  The press release notes that the SPC  will revise the CICC-related judicial interpretations to reflect the amendments to the foreign-related section of the Civil Procedure Law.

The BRI-related services and safeguards policy documents, about which I have previously written (and about which I have more to say in the neverending article) served as the policy framework for establishing local international commercial courts. The SPC has approved twelve local courts in Suzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, Xiamen, Changchun, Quanzhou, Wuxi, Nanning, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing, and Qingdao as “international commercial courts (tribunals).” It requires some detective work to determine the jurisdiction of each international commercial court.

b. Encouraging mediation and an organic connection between litigation, arbitration and mediation

The  SPC reiterates its accomplishments in establishing a “one-stop” diversified resolution mechanism for international commercial disputes to achieve an organic connection between litigation, arbitration, and mediation.  As mentioned in the 2022 report, ten international commercial arbitration institutions and two international commercial mediation institutions are part of the SPC’s “one-stop” mechanism.

c. Improving rules in foreign-related commercial cases

On improving the system of applicable rules for foreign-related commercial laws and unifying judicial standards, the spokesperson flagged that the SPC issued the Conference Summary [Meeting Minutes] on Foreign-Related Commercial and Maritime Trial Work (Foreign-Related Commercial  & Maritime Law Conference Summary (Chinese and bilingual versions) (see my previous blogpost on the document), setting forth the SPC’s views on 111 issues in foreign-related matters.  In my “neverending article,”  I describe conference summaries (会议纪要 ) as intermediate documents, issued after courts confront new issues arising from a major policy document or new situation when the approaches of the lower courts need to be harmonized but it is not yet appropriate to issue a judicial interpretation.  A book recently published by the drafters of the Foreign-Related Commercial  & Maritime Law Conference Summary （《全国法院涉外商事海事审判工作座谈会会议纪要》理解与适用） reveals that after the #4 Civil Division prepared an initial draft, they “broadly sought comments”  from relevant SPC departments, relevant State Council ministries and commissions, and selected experts. That means that the document represents a greater consensus of the relevant institutions on the issues addressed than commentators realized.

Additionally, in the past ten years, the SPC has issued guidance on foreign-related matters to the lower courts in the form of judicial interpretations (32), policy documents (9), guiding cases (18), and almost 150 typical cases. These statistics update those set out in the 2022 report.

d. Actively participating in legislation revision

As mentioned in the 2022 report, the SPC has actively participated in the revision of foreign-related laws such as the Civil Procedure Law (to come into effect next 1 January and the Arbitration Law (amendments ongoing, see this blogpost on the SPC’s contribution).  My neverending article has a more extended discussion of this.

e.  “Forthcoming Attractions”

The press release flags some “forthcoming attractions” related to the SPC’s foreign-related judicial work.

  1. The SPC is  (and has been) working on several relevant judicial interpretations (as mentioned in earlier blogposts).

a.   Coming soon is the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Law Applicable to Foreign-Related Civil Relationships” (2) (关于适用〈中华人民共和国涉外民事关系法律适用法〉若干问题的解释（二）. The spokesperson revealed that the judicial interpretation had already been approved by the SPC’s judicial committee. It incorporates provisions  relating to ascertaining foreign laws.

b. As mentioned above, the SPC  will revise the CICC-related judicial interpretations to reflect the amendments to the foreign-related part of the Civil Procedure Law. The press release does not mention amending the comprehensive judicial interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law to reflect those amendments, but I surmise those are also being contemplated.

c. A third judicial interpretation, the “Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of International Treaties and International Practices in the Trial of Foreign-Related Civil and Commercial Cases”（关于审理涉外民商事案件适用国际条约和国际惯例若干问题的解释） is still in draft.  Because the original provisions on the application of international treaties in the General Principles of Civil Law were abolished when the Civil Code was promulgated, leaving the rules for the application of international treaties unclear, the SPC is drafting an interpretation to deal with a group of issues.  Those include the application of international treaties, the relationship between party autonomy and the application of international treaties, the choice of application of international treaties that are not in force in China, the application of international practices (two typical cases discuss the application of the Uniform Customs & Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600) and public order treaty reservations.

2. Databases on foreign law and expertise on foreign law.

With the support of some CICC expert committee members, one of the SPC’s BRI research databases and foreign law ascertainment service agencies,  a foreign (non-mainland Chinese)legal database with legislation, international law documents and other legal information on ten ASEAN countries, seven South Asian countries and the ASEAN international organization has been created. Separately another service provider has created a BRI expert legal database.  The 2022 report flagged these developments.

3. Judicial materials and training on foreign-related matters

The Supreme People’s Court is compiling a “Compilation of Common Laws and Regulations in Foreign-related Civil and Commercial Matters” to assist new hires and will increase the training and guidance to improve judicial competence on the application of international treaties. Improving judicial training on foreign-related matters has been an ongoing issue.  Post-Covid, a number of training programs for judges and judges assistants on foreign-related matters have been held.

The most recent one was a national program, held at the National Judges College, focused on training senior personnel in foreign-related matters, at which Justice Tao Kaiyuan spoke.  Those speaking at the program (from the relevant departments) included representatives from the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, the Legislative Affairs Commission under the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  Ministry of Commerce, as well (presumably) senior personnel from the SPC’s #4 Civil Division and the International Cooperation Bureau (which deals with treaty negotiation and  judicial assistance matters). Local courts that have run such programs  include  Beijing (with the assistance of the University of International Business and Economics).

4. Judicial Assistance

China has concluded 171 bilateral judicial assistance treaties with 83 countries and has acceded to nearly 30 related international conventions (no change from October, 2022). In contrast to twenty or even ten years ago, the number of judicial assistance matters dealt with by the Chinese courts has increased.  The press release mentions improving the quality and efficiency of international judicial assistance such as better cooperation in the cross-border service of judicial documents,  cross-border investigation and evidence collection, ascertainment of foreign law, and recognition and enforcement of foreign (extra-territorial) judgments and arbitral awards.  This does not yet mean that it is possible for foreign litigators to take depositions in mainland China for foreign court proceedings. Service of process was an issue in this 2022 case in the Southern District of New York.

Arrangements, CICC, foreign courts, foreign-related cases

Training foreign-related legal personnel for the Chinese courts

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President Zhou Qiang visiting the University of International Business & Economics

Since the Fourth Plenum of the 19th Party Congress, and especially since President Xi Jinping spoke about the need for China to train foreign-related legal personnel  (涉外法治人才), the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) press, SPC leadership, and others important to the SPC leadership, such as Shen Deyong, former executive vice president of the SPC and current leaders of the CPPCC have reiterated the importance of “foreign-related legal personnel” to China and the people’s courts.  Training “foreign-related legal personnel” is incorporated into the Party’s Plan for Building the Rule of Law (2020-2025), an indication of its importance.  Shen Deyong  criticized the way that “foreign-related legal personnel” is used within government institutions– “team is too small, their numbers are too few, they are scattered and the market is chaotic.””涉外法律服务人才队伍建设还存在一些问题和不足，主要呈现队伍“小”、人才“少”、分布“散”、市场“乱”的特点.  I would add to the issues that he flagged that policies directed towards attracting  “foreign-related legal personnel” to the courts inevitably encounter the special characteristics of the courts’ personnel system as it has evolved since the quota judge reform was implemented, both the training system and especially career advancement from judges assistant to quota judge.

Foreign-related legal personnel policy

The language about increasing “foreign-related legal personnel” in the courts is not new but dates back to at least 2015 and the  Opinion of the Supreme People’s Court on Providing Judicial Services and Safeguards for the Construction of the “Belt and Road” by People’s Courts (BRI Opinion #1). It was reiterated in the 2019  Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Further Providing Judicial Services and Guarantees by the People’s Courts for the “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI Opinion #2) and the 2020 Guiding Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on the People’s Courts Serving and Guaranteeing the Further Opening Up to the Outside World (Open Economy Guiding Opinion). Article 15 of BRI Opinion #1 calls for improving training for Chinese judges on their professional capacity (业务能力) and improving overall judicial quality. Article 38 of BRI Opinion #2 and Article 16 of the Open Economy Guiding Opinion both have language about cooperating with universities to develop training and teaching plans so as to train and prepare a pool of international legal practitioners….”  A knowledgeable person has reminded me that repetition in consecutive documents is an indication of importance (and I would add the difficulty of resolving the problem).

As readers of this blog know, the Chinese courts need “foreign-related legal personnel” in many areas. Those include working on cross-border cases across a broad range of procedural and substantive areas,  undertaking research related to cross-border judicial policy and cross-border legal issues that have an impact on the judiciary, as well as working on a range of issues related to the SPC’s and lower courts’ interactions with the outside world.

Court cooperation with universities

The SPC has designated a number of China’s leading law schools and legal research institutions as Belt & Road research bases, including: the International Law Institute of the China Academy of Social Sciences; Tsinghua University School of Law; Wuhan University School of Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law; China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law; Dalian Maritime University, and East China University of Political Science and Law. The SPC is thus able to draw on the research capacities of China’s law schools and involve law students in the legal issues facing the Chinese courts. Participating in this research can also motivate students to enter the courts after graduation.

Law students apply to become judges assistants after graduation for a variety of reasons. Some become further interested after internships (see this blogpost on SPC interns–a version with more data may appear later).  Other law school graduates are motivated by presentations by outstanding judges at their law school (SPC Judge Gao Xiaoli’s 2015 talk at the Peking University School of Transnational Law earned her many new fans), while still others recognized that a job “in the system” would resolve their hukou problems and enable them to live in Beijing, Shanghai, or other major cities. Yet others are motivated to use their education in the service of the public. I can say with authority that law graduates with knowledge of transnational law, fluency in English (and other foreign languages) are working as legal assistants in courts all over China.  Recruitment of legal assistants is a local matter, so the #4 Civil Division of the SPC (in charge of foreign commercial matters) and likely the Political Department of the SPC (in charge of personnel) lacks statistics on the number of “foreign-related legal personnel” working in the local courts.

Special characteristics of the courts’ personnel system

I write about the judiciary’s personnel system with some trepidation as I am well aware that my knowledge of the regulatory system is incomplete. (Some of the relevant regulations cited in analyses of the personnel reforms are not accessible to those outside the court system.)   On the issue of placement of junior “foreign-related legal personnel,”  I have not heard from either knowledgeable persons, former students, or other junior personnel in the Chinese court system that specific policies have been implemented within the court system (the Political Department of the SPC is responsible at the national level, and locally, political departments of local courts are responsible) to channel judges assistants recruited from China’s law schools with transnational training and experience into roles in which their academic background can be used and their “foreign-related” legal skills can be developed. In the absence of specific policy, too many local court leaders appear to see the young people with a transnational legal background and experience merely as workers that can be put to work in the national judicial machine (司法民工). Judges assistants from higher courts are sometimes sent down to the local level to work for two years, in line with young cadre development policy.

Training

If the three documents cited above have language about training, it seems likely that a training plan is somewhere in the approval pipeline.  My guess is that this is yet another matter that requires coordination among multiple institutions within the SPC, including the #4 Civil Division–the ones asking for the training to be done, with the Political Division and the National Judges College.  As I wrote last year, a new national court training plan (2019—2023年全国法院教育培训规划)) is underway.  As senior leadership has called for cultivating  “foreign-related legal personnel,” it seems likely that the SPC will eventually issue (perhaps not publicly) a training plan for judges handling all sorts of foreign-related issues, both civil-commercial and criminal.

Career advancement

Another issue for foreign-related legal personnel in the courts is career advancement for judges assistants.  As I mentioned in passing in an earlier blogpost, career advancement from judges assistant to quota judge has slowed. Specific promotion criteria are set locally.   Local studies have been done on the role of the judges assistant but have not surmounted the language barrier (see this one from one of the Chongqing Intermediate People’s Courts)  that provide specific data and specific analysis deriving from local conditions.  From my observations, fixed quotas on the number of judges in a court can mean a talented, educated judges assistant in one court may wait significantly longer than a similarly qualified person in another court to become a judge.

Concluding thoughts

Unless the SPC can evolve better national policy directed towards a career for “foreign-related legal personnel,”  some of them will leave, disappointed with the failure of the judicial system to use their talents, despite the official publicity. There will be many companies and law firms, some dealing with the issues I described previously, that will value them.

 

 

foreign courts, foreign investment law, foreign-related cases, One belt one road

Update on China’s international commercial court

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Judge Gao Xiaoli

Among the many developments flagged in Supreme People’s Court (SPC) President Zhou Qiang’s 2018 report to the National People’s Congress is that the SPC will establish an international commercial tribunal (court)(最 高人民法院国际商事审判庭), as approved by the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms. The timing is unknown. The international commercial tribunal (this post will use the term “court”) as is understood clearly, must fit political and technical requirements. This blogpost will look at those, particularly the technical ones, as those are the ones that have escaped the attention of most commentators outside of China.

Background

Although many  articles have been published in the media, both in and out of China after the public announcement to the press about the international commercial court in January, 2018, most of them have little detail on the issues. Some contain uninformed statements, such as the one that quotes an insider at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade mentioning the use for dispute resolution of “the common law of the United States and European countries” (send the insider back to law school please!).

In the past three months, Judge Gao Xiaoli, deputy head of the SPC’s #4 civil division (photo above), and at least one other person at the SPC has released some information about the court, all of which seems to have eluded international discussions. For those who are not aficionados of Chinese foreign-related dispute resolution, Judge Gao (who often appears at UNCITRAL or international arbitration related conferences or seminars) outside as well as inside mainland China, is a formidable presence in the courtroom. Thanks to the SPC’s streaming of court hearings, it is now possible to see that from any corner of the world.  She is also an impressive speaker. Judge Gao is representative of the judges engaged in technical legal work at the SPC, with a PhD in law from one of China’s leading law schools and experience studying abroad.

Political requirements

On the political requirements, there are at least two, both previously highlighted in this blog.  The more general one was highlighted one year ago–the establishment of the international commercial court relates to a sentence in the Fourth Plenum Decision:

Vigorously participate in the formulation of international norms, promote the handling of foreign-related economic and social affairs according to the law, strengthen our country’s discourse power and influence in international legal affairs, use legal methods to safeguard our country’s sovereignty, security, and development interests.

More specifically, it appears to be the civil and commercial counterpart to the efforts noted on this blog two years ago (concerning dispute resolution in maritime cases),  part of a push to move the locus of China-related dispute resolution from London and other centers in Europe (or elsewhere) to China, where Chinese parties will encounter a more familiar dispute resolution system.

The other political requirement relates to the need to serve major government strategies, the BRI/OBOR one in particular, discussed in this blogpost.  President Zhou Qiang’s 2018 NPC report, as his 2016 report (and presumably 2017 report) contain the phrase “provided service for the country’s major strategies.” As a central government institution, the SPC must do its part to support national major strategies. Since BRI/OBOR has been initiated, President Zhou Qiang’s report has mentioned  BRI/OBOR as one of those major strategies for which the SPC has provided service.

Technical requirements

Further background

The sources that previous commentators missed include the following:

In the press interview, Judge Gao reviews what the SPC has done so far in this area, including several developments previously highlighted on this blog:

  • SPC’s One Belt One Road (BRI/OBOR) policy document;
  • SPC’s OBOR/BRI model/typical cases (see above link and translations by the Stanford Guiding Cases project found here);
  • SPC’s judicial interpretation on demand guarantees, that blogpost explains that with so many Chinese companies focusing on infrastructure projects overseas, Chinese banks have issued billions of dollars in demand guarantees.

 Technical issues

The SPC is looking at three types of investment and trade disputes:

  • state-state disputes (for China, generally WTO);
  • investor-state disputes (ICSID and other institutions, generally using UNCITRAL rules (note that CIETAC and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) also have amended their rules to be able to take investor-state disputes, with SCIA using the UNCITRAL rules;
  • disputes between commercial parties.

Judge Gao mentioned that they at the SPC, too have noticed the worldwide trend of other jurisdictions establishing courts to hear investor-state disputes, citing Canada among them and that they are exploring whether the Chinese courts can do so as well.  However, she notes that when China acceded to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention), it made a commercial reservation, and the SPC judicial interpretation concerning the New York Convention excluded investor-state disputes, so that currently it is not possible to enforce investor-state awards through the New York Convention. Judge Gao says they are considering solutions to this issue.

Commercial disputes

Definition of OBOR/BRI disputes

Although none of the authors have mentioned this (nor have I, until now), one unrecognized issues in discussing OBOR/BRI disputes is a definitional one–what is a OBOR/BRI related dispute?  It seems that in court practice, the definition is broad, including cases between Chinese contractors and their demand guarantee issuing banks, as well as cross border cases involving Chinese and parties located in OBOR countries.  In my research (including a discrete inquiry with a knowledgeable person), a formal definition is lacking.

Judicial cooperation/enforcement issues

As this earlier blogpost mentioned, enforcement of foreign court judgments is on the SPC’s agenda.  As Judge Gao recognizes, there needs to be a structure for judgments of this international commercial court to be enforced outside of China.  She mentions (as has this blog), that China is actively participating in negotiations on the Hague Convention on the Recognition & Enforcement of Foreign Judgments, and is studying ratification of the Hague Convention on the Choice of Courts Agreements.  She flags also (as has this blog) that the SPC is drafting a judicial interpretation on the recognition and enforcement of foreign civil & commercial judgments.

Practice in other jurisdictions

Judge Gao mentions that the SPC is looking at the international commercial courts in several jurisdictions, including Dubai and Singapore (as mentioned in the earlier blogpost), but also Abu Dhabi, London’s Commercial Court (it appears that someone at the SPC has read this Financial Times article on foreign litigants there), and notes that the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium are all establishing international commercial courts that use English.

Challenges for the Chinese courts

Judge Gao forthrightly flags a list of issues (my comments in italics) that the SPC faces in establishing an international commercial court. It is likely that she and her colleagues are aware of the additional issues raised as well.

  • judges; she notes that Dubai and Singapore have foreign judges on their international commercial courts, but currently China’s Judges’ Law and People’s Court Organizational Law (being amended) present obstacles to having foreign judges, and without them, the court will not be international and will not be internationally credible (literally, be internationally influential) (但是如果不引进外籍专业性人才参与国际商事法庭的建设，则缺乏国际性，缺乏影响力). My earlier blogpost mentioned the nationality issue. Would qualified foreign judges (or those from Hong Kong) be willing to join the international commercial court? Judge Gao does not mention that the group of Chinese judges qualified to hear these cases is not that large, and they are overloaded with cases, judicial interpretation/other guidance drafting, and other work. Could highly qualified Chinese lawyers be appointed to this court?  It is unclear, and relates to issues of how they would fit into the rigid structure of the judiciary, highlighted here.
  • choice of law; she mentions that parties have freedom concerning choice of law in China, so that would not be a problem.  However, relating to choice of court clauses, Professor Vivienne Bath’s research on parallel proceedings in China (previously mentioned on this blog) shows that Chinese courts do not recognize the validity of those clauses when the choice “lacks an actual connection with the dispute” because of provisions in the Civil Procedure Law.
  • procedure; she queries whether there can be some breakthroughs in civil procedure in this area.  Foreign lawyers are likely to query whether this could mean better discovery of documents. More importantly, what is not mentioned is that China’s failure to have acceded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents will also be a major obstacle for the international commercial court. Under current Civil Procedure legislation,  notarization and legalization of documents is often required. The first step is when a party files suit or when a foreign party responds. Additionally, in litigation, evidence from a foreign country often must be notarized and legalized. Notarization and legalization costs time and money and a great deal of effort. At an academic conference in 2017, experts from the institutions involved discussed how to proceed on this.
  • language; Judge Gao notes that the Civil Procedure Law puts obstacles in the way of the international commercial court hearing cases in English.  Note that the pool of Chinese judges able to hear cases in English is not large, and would even further require recruiting judges from outside China’s judicial system.
  • counsel; She mentions the issue of having foreign lawyers handle cases is also an obstacle for the international commercial court, because China’s Civil Procedure Law currently does not permit it.
  • transparency; Judge Gao notes that Chinese judicial transparency and informatization has made great strides, so should be useful to the international commercial court.  However, Judge Gao and her colleagues could usefully look at the type of information accessible to both the parties and general public (and the level of detail in judgments) in other international commercial courts.
  • enforcement; Judge Gao raises the issue of recognition and enforcement of judgments, discussed above.

Where does the SPC go from here?

The article by the post-doctoral student Liao Yuxi suggested that the SPC may want to request the NPC Standing Committee authorize it to suspend some of the problematic provisions of the Civil Procedure Law that Judge Gao flagged above, such as the use of language, and the qualification of judges.  However many of the other issues cannot be resolved so easily, such as international enforcement and the requirement of notarization and legalization of evidence.

As for when we can expect to see some rules relating to the international commercial court, and whether drafts will be circulated for public (or even soft consultation), those are all unclear.  What is clear is that many complicated legal issues face Judge Gao and her colleagues.

 

 

 

 

 

court reforms, foreign courts

“Clerking” on the Supreme People’s Court

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SPC President Zhou Qiang & Political Dept head Xu Jiaxin with 3rd group of interns, including a Peking University School of Transnational Law student

One of the unexpected influences of the United States system on the Chinese courts is the Supreme People’s Court’s (SPC) elite internship program, instituted in 2015.  (The German system of requiring law students to intern in courts, too, is an apparent influence). The word of mouth is that the SPC leadership noted that the US Supreme Court clerkships attracted top law students and wanted to do something similar in China.

The program is a small example of “foreign beneficial experience,” about which I wrote about earlier this year. The official position on borrowing/referring to foreign legal models is set out in the 4th Plenum Decision (as I wrote earlier):

Draw from the quintessence of Chinese legal culture, learn from beneficial experiences in rule of law abroad, but we can absolutely not indiscriminately copy foreign rule of law concepts and models.

President Xi Jinping’s further gloss on this is:

Outstanding products of rule of law culture in the world shall be actively absorbed and used for reference, but they must be filtered, they must be selectively absorbed and transformed, they may not be swallowed whole and copied (对世界上的优秀法治文明成果，要积极吸收借鉴，也要加以甄别，有选择地吸收和转化，不能囫囵吞枣、照搬照抄).

Unlike Supreme Court clerkships, which are done by recent law graduates, SPC interns are generally required to be students, generally at the master’s or PhD level.  The SPC selects several dozen outstanding students (the number seems to vary) to participate in the sixth month program.  They must be recommended by their law schools (each runs its own selection process)–see this notice by China University of Political Science and Law.  Several of our School of Transnational Law Students are participated.  Applications are made to the Political Department of the SPC (it handles personnel matters) rather than to individual judges.  The program is part of the SPC’s outreach to educational institutions and efforts to create a more elite judiciary.

While most requirements are in line with internships in most parts of the world and the stress appears to be on outstanding academic qualifications, among the requirements for the program is having a firm political stand (政治立场坚定) (it seems to be standard for internships in Chinese government/or government affiliated institutions) and the application form asks about the political view of family members.

In 2017, preference was given to Beijing area law schools because no housing was provided, and from the lists of accepted interns, it is clear that more Beijing area interns are accepted.  As of 2019, however, the SPC provided accommodations.  For Beijing based students, it likely means a long commute from the law schools based in the suburbs to be at work in the early morning.

Each intern is assigned a mentor, generally a presiding judge (审判长), therefore judge with long years of experience.  Interns are primarily assigned to the substantive/trial divisions (业务部门)  of the SPC and also other SPC offices including:

environmental and natural resources division;

criminal divisions;

State Compensation Office;

Administrative Division;

Enforcement Bureau;

Trial Supervision Division

Civil divisions;

Judicial reform office.

It seems that many were confronted with being assigned to work in areas of law that they had never before encountered, or being involved in work they had never before done. Some worked on judicial interpretation drafting,  many sat in on collegiate panel discussions of cases, assisted in case review, and assisted the teams of judges working on death penalty review while many helped their mentors with related research and administrative matters, finding their work reviewed meticulously, and spending long hours along with their (overworked) mentors.  Given the highly theoretical orientation of Chinese legal education, particularly at the graduate level, the interns (and their mentors) likely encountered major challenges along the way.

The circuit courts, too are taking interns, although they each seem to have their own requirements. The #2 Circuit takes interns from the law schools in Northeast China, the＃6 Circuit Court from the Northwest provinces, the #3 Circuit from law schools within its Circuit, while the #1 Circuit Court has taken interns from the Shenzhen-based law schools (School of Transnational Law and Shenzhen University) as well as law schools in other parts of the country.

As part of its outreach to the academic community, the SPC also has a smaller program for legal scholars, seeking to attract elite academics.  That program limited to Chinese nationals from Chinese law schools, who generally should not be over the age of 50! I look forward to the day when the SPC takes note of the “foreign beneficial experience” of the Federal Judicial Center, which has welcomed many Chinese judges over the years as Visiting Fellows.  The program has no age restriction. The late  Judge Zou Bihua, whom President Xi Jinping praised for guarding “equity and justice and was brave to face tough obstacles in judicial reform, [and] showed his loyalty to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the people,” had been a Visiting Fellow in 2000. He is one of the foreign judges featured on the Federal Judicial Center’s Visiting Fellows webpage.

 

 

 

 

arbitration, Communist Party and the Courts, Court Reform, foreign courts, One belt one road

Supreme People’s Court gears up for 19th Party Congress

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As the days count down to the 19th Party Congress, all Party/government institutions are preparing for it, including the Supreme People’s Court (SPC). On 19 September, the SPC issued an emergency notice (pictured above), calling on the lower courts to strengthening law enforcement work to provide a good judicial environment for the holding of the 19th Party Congress.  The SPC, as other Party/government institutions, issue emergency notices from time to time (here’s one from the Ministry of Education), generally linked to a politically significant event. The full text for the SPC notice hasn’t been released (or if it has, it has escaped me). It is meant to send signals to the SPC staff and to the lower courts.

Some of the signals:

  • improve performance indicator systems (indicating too many courts still have dysfunctional performance indicators);
  • handle more cases, handle them well, handle them quickly (多办案、办好案、快办案, language better suited to the factory floor);
  • ensure that the goal of having  difficulties in enforcement basically resolved in three years is achieved (again….);
  • clear up those unresolved cases (要抓好长期未结案件清理,确保依法妥善清理案件)–this is being taken seriously by court leaders, again judges (and their clerks, assistants and interns). The PhDs (and Master’s degree holders) praised by the SPC may feel they are somewhere between a model production worker and a real judge (or clerk.). (Of the SPC quota judges, about 1/3 have PhDs, with over half holding a master’s degree), and PhDs are not unusual in the lower courts, at least in major cities.)  An unscientific survey shows judges and their support staff doing more overtime during the pre-19th Party Congress and pre-Golden Week holiday to meet this target;
  • reminds the lower courts about the case registration reform and reminds judges that cases should be accepted, even towards year end, when courts are concerned about their case closing numbers, especially the number of cases that will be carried over to the next year, and warns them against reporting false closing statistics  (坚决杜绝人为抬高立案门槛、拖延立案、年底前提前关门不收案等突出问题), （切实防止虚假报结、强迫撤诉);
  • reminds courts about another important but controversial judicial reform, implementing the judicial responsibility system (insightful analysis and research from within the courts on this is coming out, see this recent article in the National Judicial College’s journal);
  • it reminds judges of ways to deal with the increase and cases and reduction in headcount–use diversified dispute resolution, separate simple from complicated cases, and try similar cases together.

The SPC released some year to date (end August) statistics (I’m drilling down on the state of transparency in this area)–close to 16 million newly accepted cases (15.89 million), no breakdown on how cases are categorized, closed cases up to 12.67 million (up 15.7%). This indicates continued high pressure on first instance judges and their assistants. I’m awaiting data on what the vortex of reforms means for retaining high quality judges.

 

 

administrative cases, bankruptcy law, Commercial law, Family Law, foreign courts, juvenile courts, Labor law

Welaw Monitor (微律观察) #2

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I am traveling at the moment, so my time to review articles published on Wechat is limited.  But below are some links of interest.

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Huazhen (Flower Town) emotional counseling

Oldies but goodies

Several prominent media sources, the South China Morning Post among them, are running articles on China’s clean-up of the financial sector, this one pointing to the government’s focus on privately owned insurance companies.

But those reading Wechat would have known that several years ago, China’s legal analysts had been writing  articles such as “China’s private entrepreneurs are all on their way to jail  or China’s businesspeople are either in jail or on their way to jail. 

China’s Good Samaritan case Peng Yu back in the news-  a backgrounder plus-retired SPC judge Cai Xiaoxue criticizes as does former judge & Peking U Professor Fu Yulin.

Detention Center Law draft

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has recently issued its draft Detention Center Law for public comments (link to Chinalawtranslate.com’s translation.  The draft has caused a great deal of comment within China and those concerned about the treatment of fellow human beings in criminal detention in China should read these articles:

The MPS is drafting the Detention Center Law, but the entire legal world is opposed

10 years of calls for separating detention from criminal investigation

Professor Chen Ruihua, defects of the detention system and how it should be reformed

Professor Chen Ruihua–the detention centers should be transferred to the justice authorities

Commercial law

China’s distraught buy online counseling packages, but does China’s consumer protection legislation protect them if there are no standards for counseling?

Party discipline

A Cangzhou court president is under investigation. Is it connected to the strip search of a woman lawyer?

In CCDI hearing procedures, will evidence provided by the accused be considered?  The answer is, the scope is limited

Criminal law

Three SPC judges (likely to have been on the drafting team) unpack the asset recovery regulations (discussed in this January blogpost). It shows they looked to foreign legislation when doing so;

 20 years of bribery prosecutions, with 9 acquittals

SPC on anti-drug day, with white paper and 10 typical cases

Is it rape if the sexual contact comes after the coercion?

Supervision Commission

The first father’s day after being transferred to the Supervision Commission

Labor law

Does “remote working” in China mean the place of employment has changed?

Don’t make these 10 mistakes when terminating employees

Family law issues & property

Leta Hong Fincher’s book Leftover Women discusses the Marriage Law interpretation & home purchases.  This Wechat post sets out a chart with various scenarios related to marriage & home purchase--a very handy reference.

Bankruptcy

10 typical bankruptcy cases from Suqian, Jiangsu Province, including some real estate companies

Chongqing courts borrow concepts of personal bankruptcy from abroad when dealing with private (shadow) borrowing cases

The many inadequacies in China’s non-performing asset legislation

Judiciary

A review of the Party’s work at the SPC since the 18th Party Congress

 

 

 

 

administrative cases, bankruptcy law, Commercial law, Family Law, foreign courts, juvenile courts, Labor law

Welaw Monitor (微律观察) #1

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I am tweaking the type of content on the blog, cutting down on the long analytical blogposts.   I will provide links to reports and analysis on court and other legal matters on Wechat. I am concentrating on writing a book and some other related writing and editing projects.

It remains my hope that some followers with the financial wherewithal to do so will consider supporting (in some fashion) the blogs that are enabling the English speaking and reading public to perceive (through translation or bite-sized analysis) the “elephant” that is the Chinese legal system, among them Chinalawtranslate.com and this blog.

Commercial law

14 situations where the corporate veil can be pierced

Criminal law

Public security v. SPC & SPP on what is prostitution–does that include other types of sexual services?

SPC vice president Li Shaoping on drug crimes–relevant sections of Criminal Law should be amended, better evidentiary rules needed for drug crimes, & death penalty standards need to be improved

Hebei lawyer’s collateral appeal statement, alleges torture during residential surveillance, procedural errors (part of China’s innocence project

China’s financial crime trading rules are unclear

Defendant changed his story on appeal but the appeal court ruled he was the killer

25 criminal law case summaries from People’s Justice magazine 

Criminal procedure law

public security does not want the procuratorate supervisors in police stations

A corrupt official’s polygraph problems

Supervision Commission

Its power should be caged

Beijing supervision authorities take someone into custody, will shuanggui be abolished?

Party discipline

On confession writing

10 No nos for Party members using Wechat

Administrative litigation law

SPC issues 10 typical administrative cases, including one involving the Children’s Investment Fund

Those disputing compensation for expropriation of rural land must first apply for a ruling–land is now part of the Harbin Economic and Technical Zone (unpacking of  case #46 of #2 Circuit Court’s case summaries)

Labor law

Important study by the Guangzhou Intermediate Court on labor disputes 2014-16, with many insights & a section devoted to sex discrimination issues

Don’t make these 10 mistakes when terminating employees

Family law

Status report on family court reforms (& difficult issues for judges)

 Why it’s so hard to deal with school bullying in China

How juvenile justice should be improved (the semi-official view)

Judiciary

300 cases in 100 days–a team of young judges & expedited criminal cases

Environmental Law

Procuratorate has brought 79 public interest law suits in Yunnan (press report)

Bankruptcy

Why bankruptcy is so difficult and what needs to improve

Lawyers

 legal qualification system needs changing, the profession needs those with non-law undergraduate training

 

 

 

Court Reform, foreign courts, US federal courts

Chinese courts & “foreign beneficial experience”

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US 7th Circuit Judge Posner speaking by videolink at National Judicial College (NJC) in 2016

Supreme People’s Court (SPC) President Zhou Qiang has been widely quoted for saying in January of this year that Chinese courts should strengthen ideological work and show the sword to mistaken Western ideas of “constitutional democracy”, “separation of powers” and “judicial independence.” What is not widely known outside China is that the relationship between the Chinese judiciary and some of the major international judiciaries (I’ll use the term “Western”) is more nuanced than it appears.  Close observation reveals the following:

  • high-level summits between major foreign and Chinese judiciaries;
  • senior Western judges speaking to or providing training to senior Chinese judges;
  • pilot projects in the Chinese courts involving foreign judiciaries;
  • SPC journals and media outlets publishing the translation of cases from and reports of major Western judiciaries; and
  • SPC judges reviewing legislation, institutions, and concepts from other judiciaries in judicial reform.

The official position on borrowing/referring to foreign legal models is set out in the 4th Plenum Decision (as I wrote earlier):

Draw from the quintessence of Chinese legal culture, learn from beneficial experiences in rule of law abroad, but we can absolutely not indiscriminately copy foreign rule of law concepts and models.

President Xi Jinping further elaborated this view on his visit to China University of Political Science and Law on May 3:

China shall actively absorb and refer to successful legal practices worldwide, but they must be filtered, they must be selectively absorbed and transformed, they may not be swallowed whole and copied (对世界上的优秀法治文明成果，要积极吸收借鉴，也要加以甄别，有选择地吸收和转化，不能囫囵吞枣、照搬照抄).

[The Xinhua report on Xi’s visit in English–“China should take successful legal practices worldwide as reference, but not simply copy them” omits the detail found in the Chinese reports.

Some examples of the way  the SPC considers the “beneficial legal experiences in the rule of law abroad”:

  1. High level summits (some of which were agreed to on a presidential/head of state level) on commercial legal issues, such as the August, 2016 U.S.-China (or China-U.S.) Judicial Summit

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August, 2016 US-China Judicial Dialogue, then Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General William Baer in foreground

“Our three talented and experienced U.S. judges discussed with senior Chinese judges and other experts topics relevant to commercial cases, ranging from case management to evidence, expert witnesses, amicus briefs, the use of precedents and China’s system of “guiding cases.” Speakers from both sides gave presentations that explored complex questions on technical areas of law. The conversations, during the formal meetings and tea breaks, were lively, candid, direct and constructive, highlighting both the similarities in and important differences between the U.S. and Chinese legal and judicial systems. I told our Chinese hosts that the views our judges expressed would be entirely their own, reflecting our separation of powers and the independence of our judiciary. Our judges displayed that independence as they weighed in on a range of issues, such as the role of precedents in interpreting statutes and the challenge of balancing public access to information while safeguarding privacy and protecting trade secrets.

Several of the Chinese participants discussed pending cases in U.S. courts involving Chinese defendants. I [William Baer] believe it was useful for us to air our differences and for our experts to exchange views on technical and sensitive areas of law. At the meeting, it was clear that although we come from different backgrounds and will not always agree, we all recognize the importance of legal reasoning and that increased transparency is a way of earning the public’s trust in the fairness and objectivity of the judicial system.”(from the DOJ website).

2.  Training of Chinese judges by foreign judges

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Dr. Matthias Keller, presiding judge, Aachen administrative court, teaching at NJC, March, 2017

A number of foreign judiciaries have in place long-term training programs with the Chinese judiciary, with the German judiciary among the pioneers.  The National Judicial College (NJC) (affiliated with the SPC) has a long-term program in place with the Germany judiciary, involving the German Judicial Academy, the German Federal Ministry of Justice & Consumer Protection, GIZ (the German international cooperation organization) and other parties, which teaches subsumption and related techniques of applying laws to facts (further explained here).  The NJC has published a set of textbooks that apply the subsumption method to Chinese law.

It is likely that close to 10,000 Chinese judges have been trained under the German program. Common sense indicates that the NJC has continued with the program because it is useful to Chinese judges.

A recent example of  the German training program is illustrated by the photo above, showing Dr. Matthias Keller, presiding judge of the Aachen administrative court giving a training course on the methodology of the application of law in administrative law to 150 Chinese administrative judges, mostly from intermediate and higher people’s courts.

3. Pilot projects in the Chinese courts involving foreign judiciaries

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Australian judges have worked with the Australian Human Rights Commission on a ‘Sino-Australia Anti-Domestic Violence Multi-Agency Putian Pilot Program’ in Putian, Fujian Province, involving judges from the SPC, Fujian Higher People’s Court, and Putian Intermediate Court.

4.  Publishing the translation of cases and reports from foreign judiciaries.

Some examples in recent months include:

  •  excerpts from Supreme Court decision Padilla v. Kentucky (published 7 February 2017), for those unfamiliar, it relates to plea bargaining and effective counsel);
  • U.S. Chief Justice Robert’s 2016 year end report on the federal judiciary;
  • U.S. federal judiciary’s strategic plan, for their takeaways for a Chinese audience;
  • Summary of a July, 2016 report on cameras in the federal courts;
  • Summary of the UK’s 2015 Civil Justice Council’s Online Dispute Resolution Advisory Group’s report on Online Dispute Resolution for Low Value Civil Claims.

5. Considering foreign legal concepts in judicial reform

Foreign legal concepts are considered by the SPC in a broad range of areas of legal reform, most of them unknown to foreign observers.  Several of the more well known examples include: plea bargaining  (see this article by an SPC judge (a comparison with the US “model” is included in Jeremy Daum’s  analysis of China’s expedited criminal procedure reform).  Last year’s policy document on diversified dispute resolution (previous blogpost here) specifically mentions considering concepts from abroad，On the ongoing amendments to the Judges’ Law (the draft has not yet been released), SPC Vice President Shen Deyong said in late April, “we need to learn from and refer to the successful practices of the management system of the judicial team by jurisdictions abroad, but they must be selectively filtered for Chinese use (要学习借鉴域外法官队伍管理的制度成果，甄别吸收,为我所用)。

Comment

A careful review of official statements, publications, and actions by the SPC and its affiliated institutions, as well as research by individual SPC judges shows an intense interest in how the rest of the world deals with some of the challenges facing the Chinese judiciary coupled with a recognition that any possible foreign model or provision will need to fit the political, cultural, economic, and institutional reality of China, and that certain poisonous ideas must not be transplanted.  [Those particularly interested could pore through two publications of the SPC judicial reform office (Guide to the Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening Reforms of People’s Courts and the Guide to the Opinions on Judicial Accountability System of People’s Courts, in which the authors discuss relevant provisions in principal jurisdictions abroad.]

Those who either are most concerned about diluting the Chinese essence of the SPC (or jealous/emotionally bruised) seem to have saved their most poisonous criticism for off-line comments, as I am unable to locate a written version of the nasty comments that a senior Chinese academic shared with me about the over-Westernization of judicial reform or other nasty comments said to have been made about research by certain SPC judges into foreign legal systems.  It is hard to know whether the persons involved are motivated by jealousy or a real belief that these measures described above will have a negative effect on the development of the Chinese judiciary.  It seems safe to say that the concerns raised in the 19th century on the dilution of the essence of Chinese culture when borrowing from the West seem to be alive and well in the 21st century.