A leading arbitration official has said China's eight-year-old
Arbitration Law is in urgent need of revision to better handle
disputes.
"The Arbitration Law should be revised to give parties more control
over the process, make the procedure more flexible and better meet
the requirements of modern commercial development," said Wang
Shengchang, vice-chairman of the China
International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission
(CIETAC).
The current Arbitration Law was approved by the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress (NPC), the nation's top
legislative body, in 1994 and took effect in 1995.
While the law has played an important role in promoting China's
arbitration system, Wang said some of its provisions are now
outdated.
For example, the law says disputes should be heard through
"institutional" arbitration, organized by authorised bodies such as
CIETAC.
It
does not allow for "ad hoc" arbitration, in which the parties have
more direct contact with arbitrators.
"We should introduce ad hoc arbitration, which is a very popular
tool elsewhere in the world, to offer more choice to the parties
involved," said Wang, who is also director of the Legal Affairs
Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International
Trade.
Wang said that limiting parties to a list of arbitrators makes it
impossible for other experts to give advice.
The law should also be more flexible in assessing the validity of
the arbitration agreements.
Currently, most Chinese courts tend to overrule arbitration
agreements because of minor defects, Wang said.
They should instead follow trends in international arbitration and
look favourably on agreements when determining their validity, he
added.
Wang said CIETAC is now busy preparing for the revision of the
Arbitration Law. They will hand their research results to the NPC
Standing Committee for reference.
"We expect the revision to come out by 2005, the 10th anniversary
of the current Arbitration Law," Wang said.
(China Daily February 11, 2003)