Wang Han
Professor (T2) of Northwest University of Political Science and Law,
Executive Director and Chief Expert of the Foreign-related Legal Research Center of the National Think Tank Base

Editors' Note: On 25 May 2023, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) held a seminar on the construction of the "one-stop" diversified international commercial dispute resolution platform of the SPC and development of the Belt and Road demonstration zone for international commercial legal services in the Sixth Circuit Court and the No.2 International Commercial Court of the SPC, Xi'an. The theme of the seminar was "New Era, New Opportunities, New Development". The third batch of newly appointed international commercial expert members attended the seminar. The speech of Professor Wang Han, representative of the expert members, is hereby published.

Today, the Supreme People’s Court holds a grand ceremony here to appoint the third batch of experts of its International Commercial Expert Committee, and a Forum for “one-stop” international commercial dispute resolution platform construction and “the Belt and Road” International Commercial Legal Service Example Zone Development, which fully embodies the Supreme People’s Court’s active implementation of the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) as well as the leadership and responsibility of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. It is an important measure to create a first-class market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment for the development of an export-oriented economy and society, and to provide high-quality judicial services. I am honored and encouraged to speak on behalf of the newly appointed expert committee member. Fulfilling the duties of an expert member of the International Commercial Expert Committee means a glorious mission and great responsibilities.

The establishment of the China International Commercial Court (CICC) by the Supreme People’s Court is a major reform deployment of the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core to promote the comprehensive rule of law in the new era. The major move to speed up the deployment of foreign-related rule of law work will have important practical significance and a milestone role in the practice of my country's judicial system and mechanism reform.

Since the Supreme People’s Court established CICC five years ago, it has issued the “Procedural Rules for the CICC of the Supreme People's Court (for Trial Implementation)” and the “Working Rules of the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court (for Trial Implementation)”, and “Notice of the General Office of the Supreme Peoples' Court on Inclusion of the First Group of International Commercial Arbitration and Mediation Institutions in the ‘One-Stop’ Diversified International Commercial Dispute Resolution Mechanism”, successively appointed three batches of experts of the International Commercial Expert Committee, actively explored the practice of international commercial adjudication with Chinese characteristics, and created a “one-stop” diversified international resolution platform for commercial disputes, built a “one-stop” international commercial dispute resolution mechanism, and accepted and concluded a number of major, difficult and complex international commercial cases with guiding significance of rules. In order to promote judicial cooperation and exchanges between China and foreign countries, China’s Supreme People’s Court and Singapore’ Supreme Court jointly compiled and released the “Example Cases of International Commercial Trials along the Belt and Road”, signed the “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation in International Commercial Dispute Resolution in the Context of the Belt and Road Initiative through the Framework of Mediation in Litigation”, and established China’s good image of fairness, transparency, efficiency and professionalism of the adjudication, which has provided a reliable judicial guarantee for China’s implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative for international economic and trade cooperation and institutional opening to the outside world to build a market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment, and has made important contributions to the judiciary concept and the China’s story of international commercial  adjudication. As newly appointed expert members of the International Commercial Expert Committee, we are honored to have the opportunity to give full play to the advantages and strengths of our professional knowledge and participate in the relevant adjudication practice of the CICC and other international commercial legal practice service, and to perform our duties with all our heart. We will humbly learn from and exchange experience with the experienced expert members, and implement the following work in the future performance of duties:

1. To insist on the correct political orientation in our work practice as expert committee members, to earnestly study and understand the core essence of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and to deeply comprehend and thoroughly study the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of expositions on strengthening the rule of law concerning foreign affairs and the international rule of law, to in-depth research on the strategic deployment of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core on coordinating the domestic rule of law and foreign-related rule of law, and to accelerate the layout of foreign-related rule of law work, so as to play an active role in the construction and practice of the “one-stop” diversified resolution mechanism for international commercial disputes;

2. To work hard on mastering the “Procedural Rules for the CICC of the Supreme People’s Court (for Trial Implementation)” and the “Working Rules of the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court (for Trial Implementation)” issued by the Supreme People’s Court, to consciously abide by the ethics and discipline of legal practice, to respect the parties’ autonomy of will, and to treat all parties involved in international commercial disputes with strict confidentiality, fairness and integrity, and performance of responsibilities. To participate in international commercial mediation and various work and activities of expert committees in accordance with regulations, and to consciously abide by the “Working Rules of the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court (for Trial Implementation)”, to actively maintain unimpeded communication with the office of the International Commercial Expert Committee, to enhance the initiative and self-consciousness of the expert members to perform our duties, and to perform various tasks entrusted by the CICC in a timely, effective and proactive manner on the basis of the voluntary nature of the parties concerned. To participate in international commercial mediation, foreign law identification, judicial interpretation research, professional consultation in accordance with the rules and to research on the reform of the CICC system and mechanism, to constantly revise our work experience, to continuously improve our competence, and to strive to play a good role of the expert members of the International Commercial Expert Committee;

3. To give full play to the professional advantages of international law theoretical research, to closely track and study the latest developments and the latest theoretical research results of international commercial judicial practice in various countries, and to study and judge the development trend and new situations, new changes and new problems of global international commercial judicial practice, from the perspective of the system formation, rule shaping, procedure setting, and judicial operation sort out and study the development law of international commercial judicial practice. To systematically summarize and study the development process and judicial experience of foreign-related judicial practice in China's reform and opening up for 45 years, to refine viewpoints, and to deepen theory , forming theoretical, in-depth, reference and operable theoretical achievements in international commercial jurisprudence, providing suggestions for the reform and improvement of China’s international commercial adjudication mechanism, and being an “expert think tank” for international commercial adjudication in the Supreme People’s Court, so as to give full play to the active role of the professional think tank;

4. To deepen the study of major international commercial treaties, international commercial practices and domestic laws of relevant countries, to actively participate in international commercial judicial academic exchanges and academic forums, to study typical cases of China’s international commercial adjudication, and to contribute to the spread of China’s international commercial judicial concepts and good international practice of telling Chinese stories of commercial judicial practice, and to actively participate in international commercial judicial cooperation and exchanges between China and foreign countries. With the identity and the professional expertise of the expert committee, we shall strengthen the professional theoretical study and the collaboration and mutual assistance of the research work among the expert committee members, learn from Chinese and foreign expert committee members the professional knowledge and theoretical ideas in various fields related to international commercial adjudication work, and improve the theoretical literacy and professional level of performing the duties of the expert committee.

Finally, on behalf of all the newly appointed expert members of the International Commercial Expert Committee, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Supreme People’s Court for its trust and care. We shall keep in mind your great trust, fulfill our responsibilities, mission, and duties as expert members with all our heart, and make due contributions to China’s international commercial judicial practice.

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*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.