Supreme Courts and Arbitration: China

Summary

This contribution is the Chinese national report in a special issue comparing the part played by the highest courts of the principal arbitral jurisdictions. It examines how the Supreme People’s Court shapes international arbitration in China: through its supervision of the validity of arbitration agreements, its role in the recognition and enforcement of foreign and foreign-related awards, and the judicial interpretations and guidance by which it unifies the practice of the lower courts. The report pays particular attention to the prior reporting system, under which a lower court intending to refuse enforcement of an award must refer the matter upwards, and situates that mechanism within China’s wider effort to establish arbitration-friendly credentials while retaining central judicial oversight. Read alongside the companion reports on other jurisdictions, it offers a comparative benchmark for assessing the predictability of Chinese judicial control of arbitration.