Beijing Arbitration Commission

BAC Held Training on DRB

The Beijing Arbitration Commission (the BAC) held training on DRB in Beijing on 13 March 2008.

Leading the training was Professor Thomas Stipanowich, Academic Director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, past President & CEO of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR Institute). He has also acted as an arbitrator, mediator, neutral expert, and attorney in numerous construction disputes, and has gained invaluable insight into their resolution.

Participating, were government officials from several important areas, including the National Development and Reform Commission (the NDRC), Ministry of Construction (the MOC), Ministry of Information Industry (the MII), the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (the SARFT) of China, as well as many notable engineers, lawyers and arbitrators of the BAC.

Madam Wang Hongsong, Secretary General of BAC, delivered a warm welcome to welcome Professor Stipanowich and the audience, briefly introducing the background of the training course.

During the one-day training, Professor Stipanowich made a detailed introduction of Dispute Boards (DBs), particularly illustrating Dispute Review Boards (DRBs), which aim at early issue resolution and claim avoidance. Usually the parties set up a standing panel at the very beginning of contract or project in order to regularly review potential or existing problems, and provide advisory opinions. World Bank projects and FIDIC contracts incorporate general conditions of DBs. The Ertan Dam in China is a typical case utilizing the DRB. Professor Stipanowich used vivid instances and personal experiences to explain how to use the DRB in flexible and effective ways. The participants learned a great deal and were very satisfied with the training.     

The BAC organized this training course in order to introduce and develop the use DBs in China.  One primary reason for this is that the Trial Regulation on ‘Standard Documents on Preliminary Examination of Construction Bidding Qualification’ and ‘Standard Documents on Construction Bidding’, which is jointly formulated by nine governmental sections, such as the NDRC, the MOC, the MII, and the SARFT shall come into force from 1 May 2008.  Attached to this regulation is the Conditions of Construction Contract, which contains Dispute Review Processes.  These processes make it possible for the parties to select a neutral DRB to settle their disputes arising out of, or in connection with the construction contract or the execution of the project.

It’s said that the Standard Documents did not provide DRB as a compulsory procedure, however, the government called for introducing DRB into China as soon as possible to conform to international standards, inviting third-party institutions to participate in promoting use of the DRB and establishing DRB panels.

The BAC invited great participation from Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, one of the world’s leading educational programs in the field of dispute resolution, in a series of comprehensive training courses. Following the DRB training, they will co-host a six-day mediation training course, titled Mediating the Litigated Case, which takes place on March 14-16 and 21-23.