On November 29, 2019, the launching ceremony of Foreign Law Ascertainment Platform of the Supreme People's Court of China (SPC) and the annual meeting of the Fourth Civil Division Research Base were held in Chongqing. BCI & BIMC was invited to attend this event.
In the trials of foreign-related commercial and maritime cases, where foreign laws should be applied and the parties concerned cannot provide evidence of foreign laws, the judge adjudicating the case should try every way to ascertain the foreign laws effectively. But limited channels, the length of time, and complexities in the application of foreign laws, these elements have long become the “bottleneck in foreign-related trials. To break these bottlenecks, the Fourth Civil Division of SPC worked together with five organizations: BCI & BIMC, Southwest University of Political Science & Law, China University of Political Science and Law，East China University of Political Science and Law and Wuhan University, to establish a unified platform of foreign law ascertainment. Meanwhile, the SPC appointed 31 members of the International Commercial Expert Committee from 14 countries and regions to provide high-quality and efficient foreign law ascertainment services. Underpinned by the official website of the China International Commercial Court (CICC), the Foreign Law Ascertainment Platform of The SPC officially launched.
On behalf of BCI & BIMC, Base of Supreme People's Court of China for Discerning Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Foreign Law, Dr. Xiao Jingyi, Executive President of Council, reviewed the related work of BCI & BIMC:
2019 is a significant year for BCI & BIMC. On the basis of its foreign law ascertainment service, BCI & BIMC made certain achievements in extending its services to think tank research, database construction, and commercial mediation. Since the launch of its ascertainment mechanism, BCI & BIMC has been widely entrusted by companies, lawyers, courts, government departments, etc to conduct law ascertainment and the countries concerned in the ascertainment include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Egypt, Kenya, Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Palau, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Mongolia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macau Special Administrative Region, Taiwan Area, etc. The ascertainment mainly concerns commercial laws, such as contract law, company law, labor, intellectual property, land, mining, environmental protection, and several ascertainment cases also involve criminal law. In the next step, BCI & BIMC will continue to improve the construction of the third-party public legal service platforms, make optimal use of its expert resources, and provide high-quality and efficient services in foreign law ascertainment, commercial mediation, and legal cultural exchange as well as improve the convenience and efficiency of services by investing more in legal technology.
Dr. Xiao Jingyi (second from left), BCI & BIMC's Executive President of Council, signed the cooperation framework agreement
Launching Ceremony of Foreign Law Ascertainment Platform of the Supreme People's Court
