'The Diligent Will Be Shown the Path to Heaven' China’s Implementation of the UN Sales Convention through Arbitral Tribunals

Abstract:     
This article examine the role of the Chinese International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) in China’s dispute resolution system, discussing its practices, procedures, and some of the problems which have arisen in regards to settling contracts disputes with foreign parties. It examines decisions reached in the cases governed by the substantive law of the UN Sales Convention (the CISG) that deal with defective and unsafe products and discusses how this might impact the decisions in those disputes currently pending before the tribunal. It concludes with a more wide-ranging discussion of the implications of our findings for the development of the rule of law in China.

Comparing the situation today to conditions thirty years ago when the PRC launched is massive post-Mao reforms, we conclude that the glass is at least half full and generally becoming fuller – at least for the peaceful and just resolution of international commercial disputes. Moreover, we believe that the development of reliable and increasingly fair commercial arbitration is likely to have beneficial effects throughout China.

Keywords: China, Arbitration, CISG, International Commercial Law, Sales, Rule of Law

Accepted Paper Series