BAC Newsletter Issue 9
 
 
   
   
   
   
Recent News
Focus
Practices
Arbitrators’ Salon
Theory Research
News from the Arbitration Institutions
 
 
Focus
 
   
 

International Conference of ADR
Hosted by China Supreme People's Court was Held in Beijing

  The International Conference of Alternative Dispute Resolution hosted by the China’s Supreme People’s Court, co-organized by Asian Development Bank, Li Jiacheng Foundation, Yangtse River Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Center of Shantou University was held in Beijing on November 14th, 2008. The conference was presided by Mr. Jing Hanchao, the vice-chief justice of Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court. Mr. Shen Deyong, executive vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, attended the conference and delivered a speech. The members of 14 subject teams under the project, relevant principals from 8 Courts and representatives from related scientific research institutions attended the conference. Ms. Wang Hongsong, Secretary-general of BAC was invited to make a keynote speech “How to Construct a Perfect ADR Mechanism”.

   ADR Reform Project, initiated by Judicial Reform Office of the Supreme People’s Court in 2007, is one of the key reform projects of the Supreme People’s Court. Since then 14 sub-subject teams, courts and other experimental units were set up successively. Among them, Commercial Arbitration Sub-subject Team was initiated by the BAC and China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) in August 2007. After investigation and research of the first phase and the enquiry about the suggestions of sub-subject teams on the direction opinions which the Supreme People’s Court is planning to implement, this conference became the first international conference which was participated by representatives from US, Germany and Japan. The conference was divided into three units: (1) dispute resolution outside lawsuits directed by courts; (2) lawyers’ role in ADR; (3) How to structure a developed ADR system. Besides free discussion, each unit consisted of two addressors from China and a foreign country respectively, two commentators as well as free discussion section. Ms. Wang Hongsong, Secretary-general of BAC, made a speech as the Chinese addressor of the third unit.

   As to the subject “how to structure a perfect ADR”, Professor Masahisa Deguchi from Department of Law of Ritsumeikan University in Japan introduced the civil mediation system in Japan to the conference. And Ms. Wang Hongsong, Secretary-general of BAC, made a keynote speech. In the speech, Ms. Wang first put forward the “problems and suggestions” after the implementation of arbitration law and in the suggestion of “further perfect the judicial review of the arbitration judgment”, she stated directly the problems existing in the current judicial review system by courts on arbitration, and put forward that courts should change their thoughts----if they review all other dispute resolutions under standard of lawsuit, they may deviate from the original intention of ADR, and make the presence of advantages and values of ADR more difficult. Members of various sub-subject teams shared their views and judges from courts of various levels expressed their understanding. Ms. Wang also proposed that the construction of a developed ADR needs “making great effort to carry out mediation works”. She brought forth that the system of construction should start from three core and factual problems, namely “how to resolve the legal effect problems of the mediation agreement coming out from the mediation procedure”, “how to resolve the interest problems of mediators and mediation institutions” and “how to improve the ADR education and the training works”. The suggestions of Ms. Wang won wide praise from the participators . Specially invited by the Supreme People’s Court, her speech draft has been published under the title of “Arbitration and Mediation in ADR” on “People’s Court Newspaper” on November 18, 2008.

(Jiang Lili)

 

 
 
 
 
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