On January 27, 2021, at the invitation of the Shenzhen International Arbitration Committee, a delegation from the Swiss-Chinese Law Association (SCLA) visited the Shenzhen International Arbitration Committee for a friendly exchange of views. As a result, it reached preliminary cooperation intentions on the “Geneva Mediation Institute + Shenzhen Arbitration Support model.” More than 30 members of the Swiss-Chinese Law Association, international arbitrators, government representatives, and foreign lawyers from more than 15 countries and regions attended the meeting online. They had an in-depth exchange with the Shenzhen International Arbitration Court. Shenzhen International Arbitration Court International Cooperation and Development Department Huang Guo Yong, Deputy Director Shao Jinli, Consultant Deng Kaixin and Consultant Peng Yanbing received the delegation of the Swiss-Chinese Law Association. In addition, a delegation of 8 persons, including Zhang Tianze, the Director of SCLA Qianhai Cooperation Center, Li Libin, a partner of Zhong bLun Law Firm, Zhang Jian, the Honorary Advisor of SCLA and Director of Dacheng (Shenzhen) Law Firm, Li Lei, the Advisor of SCLA and a lawyer of Guanghe Law Firm, Zeng Fengchi, the Advisor, Xie Jingwen, the Secretary, Hu Jie, a lawyer of Zhong Lun Law Firm, and Huang Jiajie, a lawyer of Dacheng (Shenzhen) Law Firm, participated in The offline headquarters visit. Representatives of the association’s online members included Mauricio Gomm, partner of GST in the United States; Olga Tsiptse, attorney of the Supreme Court of Greece; Paulo Fernando Pinheiro Machado, former director of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil; Godson Ugochukwu, Fortress Law Firm in Nigeria; Turkish Arbitration Yonca Fatma YÜCEL, Vice-Chairman of the Turkish Arbitration Commission (ISTAC), Khoo Kok Chong, a lawyer representing Malaysia, Agada John Elach, President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration and Mediation (ICMC), Pawel Sikora, partner of KKG Law Firm, Poland, Samantha Mathieu, a lawyer from Germany, Mohammed Shafiuddin, a lawyer from India, and Swiss-Chinese Law. Shafiuddin, and Hermann Knott, Chairman of the Dispute Mediation Committee of the Swiss-Chinese Law Association.
Both sides briefly introduced the background, current status, and development of their respective institutions. Huang Guoyong said that the annual case handling volume of Shenzhen International Arbitration Institute is huge, with more than 7,500 cases in 2019 and 2020. The scale of case handling is also ambitious, involving more than 6 billion worth of cases in 2020; the case coverage is extremely wide, involving more than 20 foreign countries and regions and serving the Greater Bay Area region and provinces and cities within the country. The Managing Director of SCLA, Zhang Tianze, and Hermann Knott, a member of the SCLA Mediation Committee, also introduced the background and development of SCLA offline and online, respectively. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Geneva, the Swiss-Chinese Law Association is an international organization with a global perspective, with 162 members from more than 14 countries joining the association. The association provides a platform for high-end dialogue for Chinese lawyers to learn about international trade rules and is joining the observer seat of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. In addition, the association has created the “Swiss-Chinese Law Review” issue, cloud conference system, and web system to serve the global legal community and build a professional exchange and cooperation development platform for legal professionals. On behalf of SCLA, Li Libin introduced the Association’s Qianhai Cooperation Center. He said that we understand that in 2021 the office of SIAC will also move to Qianhai, for which the two organizations will certainly have closer ties.
Huang Guoyong pointed out that during the 2020 epidemic, the Shenzhen International Arbitration Court (SIAC) has increased the processing of its online system, in the spirit of a combination of system-wide online processing and offline, to efficiently respond the demand for arbitration of cases during the epidemic. Since 2007, SIAC has cooperated with Alibaba and developed an online arbitration platform for transaction disputes. The cloud platform system has developed rapidly in recent years, from arbitration on the cloud and the pushing of the award on the AI side to serving customers on cell phones, becoming a sample of the innovative practice of legal services in China.
Li Libin introduced the Arbitration Institute founded by the Association in Geneva. As a professional legal arbitration organization, the Swiss-Chinese Law Association’s Geneva Arbitration Institute seeks a long-term case cooperation model with Shenzhen arbitrators. Mr. Huang also introduced the mature “overseas mediation + mainland arbitration” model of Shenzhen International Arbitration Committee, citing Hong Kong and Singapore institutions as examples. The two sides discussed the “Geneva Mediation Institution + Shenzhen Arbitration Support” model, agreed on the possibility of cooperation, and established preliminary cooperation intentions.
Hermann Knott, Zhang Tianze, and Huang Guoyong made concluding remarks at the end of the visit. The visit facilitated exchanges between the two institutions, discussed and shared legal practice issues in-depth, and reached a consensus on future cooperation, laying the foundation for jointly promoting the influence of both institutions in the industry, and looking forward to furthering cooperation in the field of arbitration.
