International commercial courts expanded role
China’s top court said the country’s two international commercial courts will play a bigger role this year in helping resolve disputes related to the Belt and Road Initiative and improving the global credibility of the judiciary.
“We’d like to see some litigants from countries involved in the initiative solve commercial disputes in the two courts, and we promise they will receive fair and efficient legal services here,” Luo Dongchuan, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
Luo was speaking a year after the central leadership approved a guideline on establishing the Belt and Road International Commercial Dispute Resolution Mechanism and Institutions.
Nine commercial disputes, mainly covering shareholder verification, earnings distribution and damage to companies’ interests-coming from countries such as Japan, Thailand and Italy-have so far been filed in the two courts, according to the top court.
The initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, covers the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, with the aim of creating a trade and infrastructure network to connect Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.
News from: Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China