Challenging arbitral awards in China

Produced in partnership with Dr. Arthur (Xiao) Dong of JunHe LLP and Alex Yuan of JunHe LLP

Practice notes

Challenging arbitral awards in China

Produced in partnership with Dr. Arthur (Xiao) Dong of JunHe LLP and Alex Yuan of JunHe LLP

Practice notes

Under the laws of the People’s Republic China (PRC), a party to an arbitration may apply to a PRC court to challenge or set aside an arbitral award. The set-aside is known as vacation or annulment in many other jurisdictions.

Jurisdiction of the PRC courts and general procedure

At statutory law level, the PRC courts may only set aside arbitration awards that are seated in Mainland China and rendered by the arbitration institutions of Mainland China (Article 58 of the Arbitration Law, amended in 2017 (the Arbitration Law)). The Arbitration Law does not have binding force in respect of awards seated in other jurisdictions. Therefore, the PRC courts cannot set aside arbitration awards seated in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan or foreign states.

For arbitral awards issued in arbitrations seated in Mainland China but administered by foreign arbitration institutions, a Guangzhou court held in 2020 that such award could be deemed a PRC arbitral award (ie a domestic award) and, as such, its enforcement in the PRC would be pursuant

Dr. Arthur (Xiao) Dong

Partner, JunHe LLP

Qualified Year: 1996 Bar qualification of the People’s Republic of China

Dr. Arthur (Xiao) Dong is a��partner from JunHe LLP. He has worked as a PRC lawyer nearly 30 years. He has focused on complex matters of international commercial arbitration and litigation in relation to cross-border transactions. His expertise covers a wide spectrum, including: international trade, technology transfer and intellectual property protection, cross-border investments, antitrust private litigation and M&A, as well as distribution and franchise disputes. He has been continuously recognized as a leading practitioner in arbitration by renowned organizations such Chambers, Who’s Who Legal, Legal 500, Benchmark, and Asialaw.

Arthur has been enrolled in the listed Panel of Arbitrators/Mediators of several well-established arbitration institutions such as HKIAC, SIAC, KCAB, CIETAC, BAC, SHIAC, SCIA, AIAC, WIPO. He is also a council member of the HKIAC. Arthur is a sought-after arbitrator among the Asia-Pacific arbitration institutions. Arthur has been appointed as arbitrator on more than 330 occasions. He is also a frequent speaker on international commercial arbitration and mediation.

He has been acting as legal counsel or arbitrator under the CIETAC Rules, BAC Rules, SHIAC Rules, ICC Rules, UNCITRAL Rules, HKIAC Rules, SIAC Rules, SCC Rules, ICDR Rules, etc. He has served as counsel in more than 30 cases concerning the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in different jurisdictions pursuant to the New York Convention. He has also been invited to act as an expert witness on Chinese law in several arbitration and litigation cases outside of China.

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Arthur is the author/co-author of several books/articles on international dispute resolution. As an active author of law practice articles, he has also published a number of works with Lexis Nexis.

Alex Yuan

Senior Associate, JunHe LLP

Year qualified: 2010 Bar qualification of the People’s Republic of China

Mr. Alex Yuan began his career in international trade and related dispute resolution in his undergraduate years. Before becoming a licensed lawyer, he had been working in an international trade company for years and practiced in diverse sectors in export and import business.

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As a lawyer, Alex focuses on arbitration and litigation, including international sales of goods, commodity trade, transportation, settlement, insurance, technology services, and emission reduction transaction. He has also helped clients dealing with legal issues arising from several cross-border governmental procurements. He has served clients from many jurisdictions and has handled a quite a number of international arbitration cases before ICC, SIAC, HKIAC, JAMS, CIETAC, BAC, SHIAC as well as ad hoc arbitrations seated outside Mainland China. He is particularly skilled in appearing before overseas tribunal and conducting cross-examination in English. He has extensive experience in handling matters where multi-jurisdictions are involved especially on jurisdictional issues in arbitration. Alex is a representative of ICC Young Arbitrator Forum North Asia region.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Award definition

What does Award mean?

Generally, a final, binding decision of the arbitral tribunal on the substantive dispute between the parties. Arbitral awards may also be interim (ie they have temporary, not final, effect) and partial (ie deciding one or more, but not all, of the issues in the dispute on a final, binding basis).

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