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Jul 08, 2025
Mediation is on the rise internationally as a means to settle disputes in a cost-effective manner. Chinese parties appear to be increasingly interested in mediation as an option. This article examines the evolving landscape of mediation in China and internationally. It considers how mediation for Chinese parties is evolving and whether mediation is a good option for Chinese parties in cross-border disputes. Commercial mediation has seen remarkable growth, bolstered by a supportive PRC judicial system and legislative initiatives encouraging parties to find harmonious ways to resolve disputes. The article analyses the three primary types of mediation in China: people’s mediation, administrative mediation, and commercial mediation. It also looks at mediation rules and proceedings in common law jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. The article anecdotally considers the cultural elements, emphasising the Chinese parties’ preference for evaluative mediation styles as a reflection of civil law. Through case studies of international disputes involving Chinese and US parties, the article illustrates the practical dynamics of mediation involving Chinese parties and underscores the importance of cultural sensitivity in international mediation. As Chinese parties continue to go global, mediation is emerging as an attractive option for efficient and cost-effective dispute resolution. This analysis assesses whether the promotion of mediation is yielding tangible outcomes and explores the future of mediation involving Chinese and foreign parties.
Feb 17, 2023
This article will outline the development of China’s restrictions on the cross-border transfer of personal information (PI export), detailing PI export mechanisms provided by the Personal Information Protection Law. It will also explain the practical implications of the restrictions.
Dec 04, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly in China, with the number of patents and the size of the market both ranking highly among countries. However, this rapid development has posed new challenges to the legal framework, ethical norms and social governance, prompting China to continuously adjust and improve the relevant regulatory system.
Jul 26, 2023
A 2022 amendment made minor modifications to China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), responding in part to challenges triggered by the digital economy. The amendment directly prohibits undertakings from using data, algorithms, technologies, advantage in capital and rules to engage in anti-competitive conduct. Indirectly, the amendment introduces a new legislative purpose (‘encouragement of innovation’), a classification and grade mechanism to merger control, an explicit provision against hub-and-spoke agreements, and requires notification of problematic mergers below the notification thresholds. The Chinese competition authorities should revise their supporting rules, not overlook the positive roles played by capital, think twice before investigating exploitative abuses of dominance, and better coordinate with other administrative authorities.
May 21, 2026
The risks posed by AI – from misinformation to discrimination in decision-making – require an urgent regulatory response. Global Insight examines the attempts made so far to provide this.
This article reviews injunctive reliefs related to standard-essential patents (SEPs) in China, focusing on court rulings and antitrust investigations, as well as rule-making that has demonstrated a process of reaching consensus on the interplay between patent and antitrust regimes. China is becoming one of the major battlefields for SEPs, subject to the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) commitments.
Oct 18, 2022
On 30 June 2022, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) approved a draft convention (the Draft Convention) on the effects of judicial sales.
From the CLI Editorial Board, May 2019.
Competition Law International - May 2019
Recent developments in China to rejuvenate the automotive industry- Taxes Committee newsletter article, July 2020
Apr 22, 2022
This article discusses the recent SEC case involving PwC and highlights the wider implications for intermediary institutions providing professional services in a tightened regulatory and enforcement regime in China’s banking and financial sector.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to intensify and affect businesses around the world, we are likely to
see an increase in the amount of disputes initiated by foreign companies against Chinese entities.
Oil companies need to find alternatives to reinvent their business and ensure their future when fossil fuels become less important as an energy source. Finding synergies, integrating renewable energy with their developments and resorting to other effective solutions are likely to enable achievement of energy transition goals. As offshore wind power generation emerges as a promising alternative, synergic with oil and gas activities, Brazil offers great potential and opportunity for players in that segment.
IBA Global Insight February/March 2018 - A crackdown on business tycoons and restrictions on outbound foreign investment signal an end to China’s global spending spree, with the private sector now seen as a threat to the control of its economy.
Jun 01, 2020
On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a public health emergency of international concern. On the same day, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) announced that it would issue ‘force majeure certificates’ to affected Chinese companies to help minimise economic losses arising from the outbreak and consequential events.
Nov 21, 2025
This article examines the first arbitral award rendered under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), prompted by the UK’s prohibition of sandeel fishing in English and Scottish waters. It analyses the tensions between regulatory autonomy and treaty-based obligations, with particular attention to the role of scientific evidence, the principle of proportionality and allegations of discrimination. The tribunal’s reasoning, which upholds the Scottish ban while identifying procedural deficiencies in the English measure, sheds light on the dynamic relationship between environmental protection and international trade law. The article further considers the award’s procedural innovations and reflects on its broader implications for the future operation of dispute resolution mechanisms under the TCA.
The United Kingdom exited the European Union on 31 January 2020. By virtue of this, the EU Takeover Directive ceased to apply in the UK, and thus there was a need to amend the existing regulatory framework on takeovers for it to operate after the UK’s exit from the EU. As a result, the Code Committee of the Takeover Panel published a Public Consultation Paper proposing amendments to the Takeover Code. A Response Statement was also published by the Code Committee with final proposed amendments. [...]
Jun 12, 2024
The new Foreign State Immunity Law 2023 of the People’s Republic of China came into force on 1 January 2024. This shifts the country (as well as its special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau) away from absolute state immunity to restrictive state immunity, bringing it more in line with the relatively prevalent practice among the international community. This article discusses the status of state immunity in public international law, analyses the new law’s provisions and examines practical challenges that will be faced by those seeking to utilise this law to enforce judgments or awards against foreign states and state entities, and the new law’s innovations that go beyond the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property of 2004 and the UK State Immunity Act 1978.
Nov 21, 2025
This article examines how deepfakes – AI-generated or manipulated audio, image, and video – destabilise evidentiary assessment in arbitration. Beyond the risk of convincingly falsified exhibits, deepfakes fuel the ‘liar’s dividend,’ whereby the mere possibility of manipulation is invoked to discredit authentic proof. Detection remains technically challenging, costly, and unevenly accessible – especially for mid- and small-value cases. Drawing on recent litigation experience, the EU AI Act’s transparency framework, and broader evidentiary principles, the article highlights how these difficulties risk undermining fairness, efficiency, and equality of arms. After a brief technical primer on deepfakes and their detection limits, the discussion distills lessons from court cases (including the emergence of the ‘deepfake defence’) and evaluates arbitration’s current evidentiary toolbox, highlighting risks of chilling effects and cost inflation if authenticity burdens are misplaced. While arbitration is not without safeguards – party autonomy, due process, procedural loyalty, ethical duties, and soft-law instruments – the article questions whether these tools are sufficient in practice. The contribution is ultimately pragmatic: safeguard fair and efficient truth-finding by reinforcing proportional verification, targeted expert input, and principled tribunal case management – so that access to justice is preserved when seeing is no longer believing.
Jan 12, 2024
The European Regional Forum (ERF), in particular its Professional Wellbeing Working Party (PWWP), organised a session on lawyers' wellbeing and ways in which we can make our law firms become better working environments. This session was additionally organised with the support of the IBA’s Presidential Task Force on Mental Health and wellbeing and the Professional Ethics Committee; it took place at the IBA 2023 Annual Conference in Paris.
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