Judicial Reforms Propelled by China’s Belt & Road Initiative; October Seminar on China’s New IP Case System Featuring Chinese and U.S. Judges

Judicial Reforms Propelled by China’s Belt & Road Initiative

China’s Open Door Policy initiated in 1978 set into motion a series of legal reforms aimed at promoting foreign investment in the country. Today, almost forty years later, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious plan rolled out by President Xi Jinping in 2013 to, inter alia, encourage foreign countries to open their doors to Chinese businesses, is propelling judicial reforms in China to help achieve the “Belt and Road” goals. Two examples are illustrative:

These cases show the importance of Chinese banks’ strict adherence to international rules on demand guarantees to facilitate international transactions. The principles developed through these cases were ultimately “codified” by the Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) of China in December 2016, when the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Handling of Disputes over Independent Guarantees came into effect.

                     To explain the significance of this case, the SPC wrote:

This [case] not only has landmark significance in the mutual recognition and enforcement of commercial judgments [between] China and Singapore but also will powerfully advance the realization of judicial cooperation in the area of mutual recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments between countries along the Belt and Road. (emphasis added)

B&R Typical Case 13 turns out to be just the beginning of a series of exciting developments related to the recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments. On June 30, 2017, a court in Hubei Province recognized and enforced a U.S. court judgment based on the principle of reciprocity (specifically, on the ground that a Chinese court judgment had been recognized and enforced by another U.S. court). On September 12, 2017, China signed the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, which requires member countries to recognize and enforce judgments rendered by the court chosen by the parties to a dispute. All of these developments are apparently in line with a pledge made by the SPC in late September 2017 to “increase judicial cooperation with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative”. Zhou Qiang, President of the SPC, reportedly said, “a comprehensive judicial system needs to be created by making bilateral or multilateral treaties […] The more judicial cooperation among the countries and regions, the more improvements to the initiative.”

October Seminar on China’s New IP Case System Featuring Chinese and U.S. Judges

CGCP Oct 19 Seminar Speakers
LEFT: Judge JIANG Shuwei (Judge, Beijing IP Court), Mr. John Liu (Chief Technology Officer, Gridsum Holding Inc.) CENTER: Judge William A. Fletcher (Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit), Dean Elizabeth Magill (Richard E. Lang Professor of Law & Dean, Stanford Law School), Dr. Mei Gechlik (Founder and Director, CGCP). RIGHT: Judge LIU Yijun (Judge, Beijing IP Court), Professor Leon Lee (Executive Director, Case Law Research Center, School of Law, Central University of Finance and Economics).

The abovementioned judicial reforms show how enormous the momentum is if the driving force for reforms is rooted in China’s own needs. Similar momentum is seen in the reform of China’s intellectual property (“IP”) protection mechanism to help the country become an innovation powerhouse by 2020, a goal explicitly stated in China’s plan on scientific and technological innovation for the period from 2016 to 2020.

Seven years after China established its system of Guiding Cases (i.e., de facto binding precedents), the country is ready to build on the basis of this system a groundbreaking case system that focuses on IP. Will this system be more in line with stare decisis, with judgments rendered by China’s IP courts considered formally binding? Will the database being built to support this new system be open to the public to promote understanding and facilitate legal practice? How might foreign parties, including U.S. businesses and innovators, be able to leverage this new development to better protect their legal rights and interests?

To answer the above and related questions, Dr. Mei Gechlik, Founder and Director of the China Guiding Cases Project (“CGCP”), will moderate a Guiding Cases SeminarTM on October 19, 2017 at Stanford Law School (“SLS”) featuring Judge JIANG Shuwei and Judge LIU Yijun (both judges from the Beijing IP Court), Judge William A. Fletcher (Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit), Mr. John Liu (Chief Technology Officer, Gridsum Holding Inc.), and Professor Leon Lee (Executive Director, Case Law Research Center, School of Law, Central University of Finance and Economics). SLS Dean Elizabeth Magill will deliver an opening speech to welcome the speakers and guests. Don’t miss the chance to learn about this significant development in the Chinese legal system and RSVP here today!

Patent Law in Global Perspective Conference on October 20

Judicial Reforms Propelled by China’s Belt & Road Initiative; October Seminar on China’s New IP Case System Featuring Chinese and U.S. Judges

In addition to the above seminar, Judge LIU Yijun will also join a panel at the Patent Law in Global Perspective conference, which is sponsored by the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology and Samsung Electronics, to discuss with other panelists global patent licensing and enforcement. If you are interested in joining this event, please RSVP here.

CGCP Adviser’s Talk on Guiding Cases

On August 31, 2017, Ms. Helen Su, CGCP Adviser and Partner at Alston & Bird LLP, spoke about Guiding Cases (“GCs”) and the CGCP at the China 13th Five Year Plan & Foreign Investment Environment Roundtable in Beijing. In her presentation titled “How China’s Guiding Cases Guide Foreign Investment in China,” Ms. Su examined three GCs (Nos. 8, 15 and 33) involving corporate and contract disputes to illustrate how GCs can help foreign companies doing business in China. In addition, she cited statistics from CGCP research to show the growing importance of GCs during the adjudication of subsequent cases in China.

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Since its establishment in February 2011 to help China establish a more transparent and accountable judiciary, the CGCP has shared significant insights about the country’s Guiding Cases and related developments, including Belt and Road Initiative. To continue receiving these insights, please subscribe to our mailing list here.

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The CGCP thanks our sponsors, including Alston & Bird LLPBroad & Bright, the Center for East Asian Studies of Stanford University, China Fund of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies of Stanford University, and the Fu Tak Iam Foundation Limited, for their kind and generous support.