Supreme People’s Court, Fafa［1997］ No. 4, March 26, 1997; modified by the decision of the Supreme People's Court on Adjusting the Article Number Order of the "Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" in Judicial Interpretations and other Documents, promulgated on December 16, 2008.

To the high people's courts of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government:  

We hereby issue the following notice on several issues necessary to be clarified concerning the implementation of the Arbitration Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter “Arbitration Law”) by the people's courts: 

1.Where an arbitration agreement has been concluded in accordance with the law before the implementation of the Arbitration Law, it shall continue to be effective. Where a party thereto files an action with a people's court, the people's court shall not accept the suit and shall inform the party to apply to an arbitration institution reorganized in accordance with the Arbitration Law. 

After the parties waive arbitration by a written agreement, where one of the parties concerned files an action with a people's court, the people's court shall accept the case in accordance with the law. 

2. [Revised 2008]  Where a party applies for property preservation during arbitration, the decision shall be made by the basic people's court of the place where the respondent is domiciled or where the property is located, as applicable for general cases; or by the intermediate people's court of the place where the respondent is domiciled or where the property is located, as applicable for cases involving foreign elements, in accordance with the provisions of Article 256 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China.  The relevant people's court shall examine, with due consideration, the property preservation application submitted by the arbitration institution, and shall decide to apply the property preservation measures in accordance with the law, if such application conforms to provisions of the law; or otherwise decide to dismiss the application, if such application is deemed to have failed to comply with provisions of the law. 

3. Where a party concerned applies for the enforcement of an arbitral award involving foreign elements rendered by an arbitration institution established under the Arbitration Law, the people's court shall accept the case in accordance with the law. 

Related Links:
最高人民法院关于实施《中华人民共和国仲裁法》几个问题的通知

*The original text is Chinese and has been translated into English for reference only. If there is any inconsistency or ambiguity between the Chinese version and the English version, the Chinese version shall prevail.