China's Belt and Road Development and A New International Commercial Arbitration Initiative in Asia

Abstract

English Abstract: China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), ambitiously aspires towards expanding regional markets and facilitating regional cooperation. In context of a rising volume of cross-border transactions generated by the BRI, a robust legal framework on dispute resolution is required to forge investor confidence and enhance BRI's integral goal of economic integration. In light of the substantial levels of harmonization among arbitration laws, arbitration is argued to constitute a primary vehicle of international commercial dispute resolution in an economically integrated Asia under the BRI. It is against this backdrop that the Article argues that the BRI provides a unique opportunity to contemplate the possibility of regional harmonization, as within the Asian economies along the BRI, of the public policy exception to arbitral enforcement. Such an arbitration initiative in Asia, in which China is anticipated to take a proactive role, holds a wealth of potential to project renewed momentum on China as an engine of not only economic power, but also soft power transformation in pioneering international legal norms.

由中国政府提出的“一带一路”倡议亟需一个促进投资者信心的法律框架来有效解决纷争、降低交易成本。考虑到绝大多数沿线亚洲国家以《示范法》和《纽约公约》为本国仲裁法的依托，已存在较高的融合基础，仲裁有望成为最主要的“一带一路”国际商事争议解决机制。鉴此，在打造亚洲区域经济一体化下谈仲裁融合，对于与跨境仲裁裁决承认执行休戚相关的公共政策机制的协调显得尤为重要。公共政策，作为国际仲裁中的争议性概念，一直以来缺乏统一的内涵与实践，而“一带一路”的发展，为亚洲沿线国家间实现国际商事仲裁以及公共政策的融合提供了绝佳的机遇。“仲裁地”与“去本地化”的理论学说、欧盟及非洲商法协调组织的实务经验，也进一步为公共政策的融合指明可行进路。推行亚洲国际商事仲裁的融合，有利于中国政府在强调经济影响力的同时，展现其国际法律规则制定的软实力。