On the morning of 10 December, 2019, the Fourth Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing (“the Court”) held a press conference to report the status of judicial review of arbitration cases in the past five years, publicly release the Guidelines for Judicial Review of Arbitration Cases (“Guide”) with relevant representative cases, and jointly release the Research Report on Big Data in Judicial Review of Arbitration (“Research Report”) with the China Arbitration Institute of China University of Political Science and Law. Zhao Jian, Vice President of CIETAC Arbitration Court, attended the press conference and delivered a speech.

During the press conference, Yuan Yuchi, Deputy President and spokesman of the Court, reported the status of judicial review of arbitration cases by the Court in the past five years. From January 2015 to October 2019, the Court accepted 1,278 cases for judicial review on arbitration, of which 401 cases were filed to confirm the validity of arbitration agreements and 877 cases to set aside the arbitral awards. 242 cases were foreign-related, of which 64 cases were  to confirm the validity of arbitration agreements and 178 cases to set aside the arbitral awards. Among all the cases, 4 cases were re-arbitrated, 3 arbitration agreements were confirmed as invalid and 3 cases were set aside. 99.2% of the cases maintained arbitral awards. Yuan Yuchi said that in the past five years, the Court has been supervising and supporting the orderly development of arbitration through arbitration judicial review. In the practice, the Court has researched and formulated a series of measures to regulate the exercise of arbitration judicial review power, to guarantee and promote the credibility of arbitration. While providing judicial support for the development of arbitration, the Court would promote the coordinate development of litigation and arbitration as two major dispute resolution mechanisms. It would strive to create a good rule of law for the construction of the business environment in Beijing and the “Belt and Road” initiative.

Ma Jun, President of the civil tribunal of the Court, pointed out that the Court provided Guidelines to tackle four major issues in judicial review on arbitration, which were the systematic application and interpretation of law, the professional trial of cases, the connection between judicial review and arbitration, and the efficiency of adjudication and the accuracy of the application of law. It was expected that the Guidelines would improve the efficiency and quality of judges’ judicial review, standardize review procedures, unify judgement standards, reduce the workload of judges in searching for legal provisions, and improve the accuracy of the application of law.

Du Xinli, Professor of China University of Political Science and Law and Dean of the China Arbitration Institute, said that the release of the “Research Report” would promote the unification of fair justice with law application based on informatized and digitalized research results. It was an effective attempt to further refine arbitration system and foster a good arbitration environment. Jiang Lili, Secretary General and Deputy Dean of the China Arbitration Institute, gave a brief introduction to the Research Report, and made a detailed explanation of the key analysis results.

Zhao Jian pointed out that for the past five years, the Court has upheld the idea of supporting arbitration, respected the principles and characteristics of arbitration, fulfilled the parties’ intention to arbitrate as much as possible, and maintained the validity of arbitration agreements. When conducting judicial review of arbitral awards, the Court constantly regulates the review standards, makes effort to maintain the effectiveness of arbitral awards and actively creates a good rule-of- law environment for the development of arbitration. He said that the high-quality judicial supervision environment was positively related to the development of arbitration, and has provided a strong guarantee for the rapid development of CIETAC arbitration business. He emphasized that the publication of the Guidelines and the Research Report is of great significance for improving the arbitration system and enhancing the credibility of arbitration. CIETAC will carefully study the Guidelines and the Research Report, further improve its arbitration services, continuously improve the parties’ fulfillment and satisfaction, and make new contributions to the development of China’s arbitration and the construction of a business environment under the rule of law.

Yang Jindong, Director of the Legal Service Office of the Court, host the press conference, and Guo Yi, Director of the Trial Supervision Division of the Court, attended the press conference. Liu Jingdong, Director of the International Economic Law Office of the Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Wang Yumei, Qi Qing, Li Yuanfang, representatives of the Beijing People’s Congress, Ding Jianyong, Deputy Secretary General of the Beijing Arbitration Commission, and Tian Ruihua, Director of the Commercial Arbitration Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, attended the press conference and delivered speeches.