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Editorial

编辑导言

 

 

陶景洲（Jingzhou Tao），北京大学法学院兼职教授，清华大学法学院特邀教授，独立仲裁员

 

 

早在新冠肺炎疫情席卷全球之前，季卫东教授就与我联系，准备在这本杂志出版一期关于亚太地区国际仲裁的特刊。我有点犹豫，因为国际仲裁并不是一个真正的学术课题，而是一个实务问题。然而，季教授有兴趣就这一主题出版特刊说明学术界对亚洲仲裁是有研究兴趣的。亚洲仲裁对国际商法的确具有面向当代和未来的实际意义。

有多重原因使得亚洲国际仲裁值得关注。在过去二十年中，亚洲已成为新兴的国际仲裁中心，越来越多的亚洲仲裁机构得以设立，办理的国际仲裁案件也越来越多，而且一些传统的西方国际仲裁机构也来到亚洲，并在香港、新加坡、上海等地开设了办事处。

跨国企业倾向选择仲裁解决争端。许多国际企业被仲裁程序的成本效益、灵活性和保密性以及仲裁裁决的国际可执行性所吸引。通过使用仲裁，企业避免将争议解决交给公正独立性存疑的某一国法官，这一现象在一国法治状况不佳且外国商人不想采用“国内司法”时尤其常见。随着案件量的增加，仲裁方式也被期待有所改进。事实上，仲裁的方式在过去几十年中正在不断经历着变化——亚洲也不例外。

道格·琼斯教授的论文论述了现代仲裁的重要一面：国际商事仲裁的效率和透明度。尽管保密是仲裁的一个显著特点，但参与仲裁的各方仍旧要求提高仲裁程序的透明度——以及更多关于各机构提名首席仲裁员的方式和仲裁员背景信息的信息。作者认为，仲裁程序透明度的提升将使国际仲裁具有更多的合法性。

关于效率和透明度的同一问题，手塚裕之（HiroyukinTezuk）和小枝未優（Mihiro Koeda）在地理范围更窄、类型更大的背景下进行了讨论；他们从日本非诉讼纠纷解决程序（ADR）的最新发展中审视效率和透明度问题。日本作为世界上最大的经济体之一，拥有世界上最发达的科技。然而，无论是从日本律师事务所的国际化还是从日本仲裁机构的发展角度来看，日本都相当落后。因此，在过去的几年里，日本也在加倍努力，通过颁布新的法律、建立新的机构和实施新的技术来改善这种情况。

杨康海（Alvin Yeo）和曾福庆（Chan Hock Keng）的论文探讨了疫情期间仲裁和法院为适应国内外出行限制进行的案件处理。疫情之下，电子诉讼系统和视频会议成为仲裁听证的主要方式。他们以新加坡为例，概述了线上听证会的法理基础。疫情迫使经验丰富的仲裁员不得不暂停公务出行，转而快速学习电子设备操作，使用Zoom和Microsoft Meeting应用程序与屏幕“交谈”。

邝静仪（Cheng Yee Khong）的论文讨论了一个热门话题：第三方融资。随着国际仲裁的成本越来越高，一些公司由于资金限制根本负担不起巨额仲裁案件——尽管他们认为自己拥有足以赢得未来的仲裁的法律和合同依据。第三方融资的激增是对市场需求的自然反应。她以亚洲司法管辖区的监管发展为研究，并通过两个案例研究展示了最新的发展状况。

从具体国家的角度来看，法里斯·埃利亚斯·纳斯鲁拉（Faris Elias Nasrallah）提交了一份关于叙利亚仲裁的文件。学界目前很少有详细的论文研究叙利亚的仲裁制度——自2011年以来，该国一直饱受内战和局部冲突之苦，但这并没有摧毁阿拉伯古老的争端解决体系。本文从叙利亚国内法和国际法两个方面分析了叙利亚仲裁问题。

 

Right before the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the whole world, Professor Ji Weidong contacted me for a Special Issue on international arbitration in the Asia-Pacific region for this publication. I was somewhat hesitating in a sense that international arbitration is not really an academic subject, but rather a pragmatic matter. However, the mere fact that Professor Ji likes to have a Special Issue dealing with the subject was a good indication that the academic community is interested in arbitration in Asia. Arbitration in Asia can indeed have contemporary and future practical importance for international business law.

The reasons why international arbitration in Asia warrants attention are multifold. For the last two decades, Asia has become the emerging international arbitral centre; not only were more and more Asian arbitration institutions set up in the region and those centres have increasingly more international arbitration cases, but also several traditional Western international arbitration institutions have come to Asia and opened their offices in cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, etc.

Arbitration is a preferred dispute-resolution means for the transnational business community. The cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings together with the international enforceability of arbitration awards have encouraged many international business operators to choose arbitration so that their future dispute will not fall into the hands of national judges whose independence and impartiality are allegedly questionable. This is particularly true when the rule-of-law record of a country is somewhat mediocre and foreign business people do not want to get into a “home justice” legal procedure. With the case-load increase comes the desire to improve the way to conduct arbitration. Indeed, arbitration has been constantly improved over the last several decades and Asia is not an exception.

Professor Doug Jones’s paper deals with the important aspect of modern arbitration: the efficiency and transparency of international commercial arbitration. Although confidentiality is one of the distinctive features of arbitration, parties involved in the arbitration itself ask for more transparency of the arbitration procedure and for more information about the way in which the institutions nominate the presiding arbitrator and background information about the arbitrators. It is the author’s view that transparency will give greater legitimacy to international arbitration.

On the same issue of efficiency and transparency, HiroyukinTezuk and Mihiro Koedahave dealt with the efficiency and transparency in a geographically more narrow and typologically larger context; they look at efficiency and transparency issues from the latest development of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Japan. Japan is one of the biggest economies and has one of the most developed technologies in the world. However, from both the internationalization of Japanese law firms and the development standpoint of Japanese arbitration institutions, Japan was quite lagging behind. Over the last several years, Japan has doubled its effort to rectify this backwardness by promulgating new laws, setting up new institutions, and implementing new technics.

Alvin Yeo and Chan Hock Keng’s paper deals with the arbitration and court-case handling during the pandemic to adapt to domestic and international travel restrictions. Electronic litigation systems and video conferencing have very suddenly become the dominant arbitration hearing methods. Yeo and Keng have taken Singapore as an example to outline the legal basis for virtual hearing. The pandemic has forced the grey-hair arbitrators to stop first-class travel and to quickly learn how to manipulate the electronic gadgets and apparels, and to talk to the screen using Zoom and Microsoft Meeting apps.

Cheng-Yee Khong’s paper discusses a hot topic, which is third-party funding. With international arbitration getting more and more expensive, some companies just could not afford to start a big-ticket arbitration case, even though they thought that they would have both legal and contractual grounds to win the future arbitration, due to the financial constraints. The upsurge of third-party funding is a natural response to the needs of the markets. Khong examined the regulatory development in Asian jurisdictions and discussed the recent development through two case-studies.

From a country-specific aspect,  submitted a paper discussing arbitration in Syria. It is quite rare to have a detailed paper studying the Syrian arbitration system. The country has been suffering from civil war and local conflict since 2011 but this does not smash the resilient and ancient customary Arabic dispute-resolution system. This paper analyzes arbitration in Syria from both Syrian national and international law.

 

 

 

 

 

Research Article

研究论文

 

Exploring the future of commercial dispute resolution in Asia: Accelerating efficiency and effectiveness in ADR

探索亚洲商事纠纷解决的未来：提升ADR的效率和有效性

 

手塚裕之（HiroyukinTezuk），东京西村朝日律师事务所（NISHIMURA&ASAHI）

小枝未優（Mihiro Koeda），东京西村朝日律师事务所（NISHIMURA&ASAHI）

 

Abstract:

Since 2017, Japan has rapidly developed its hard and soft infrastructure to accelerate the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Japan, such as establishing the Japan International Dispute Resolution Center and the Japan International Mediation Center, Kyoto, as well as amending the Foreign Lawyers Act. The legislative process to amend the Japanese Arbitration Act is underway and discussions to accede to the Singapore Convention are ongoing. Mediation and settlement discussions involving judges during the litigation process are traditionally common in Japanese court practices, which would have some implications for investor–state mediation, which is a recent hot topic in the field of investor–state dispute settlement. Numerous means of further improving the efficiency and effectiveness of ADR proceedings have been discussed globally, including mid-stream conferences, Calderbank offers, the use of mediation in complex disputes, and the advanced use of Arb-Med-Arb proceedings utilizing party-appointed arbitrators.

 

Keywords:

settlement involving the Japanese Supreme Court; investor–state mediation; mid-stream conference; Calderbank offer; mediation in complex disputes; party-appointed arbitrators’ role in Arb-Med-Arb proceedings

 

摘要：

自2017年以来，日本迅速发展了其硬件设施和软件设施，以加快在日本使用非诉讼纠纷解决程序（ADR），例如在京都建立日本国际争端解决中心和日本国际调解中心，以及修订《外国律师法》。同时，《日本仲裁法》的修订程序以及加入《新加坡公约》的讨论也在进行中。传统的诉讼过程中，有法官参与的调解和和解讨论在日本的法院实践中很常见，而这也将对投资者-国家调解的领域产生一些影响——这是投资者-国家争端解决领域最近的热门话题。全球范围内已经讨论了许多进一步提高ADR程序效率和有效性的方法，包括中期会议、Calderbank报价、在复杂纠纷中使用调解，以及利用当事人指定的仲裁员先进使用Arb-Med-Arb程序。

 

关键词：

涉及日本最高法院的和解；投资者-国家调解；中流会议；Calderbank报价；调解复杂纠纷；当事人指定仲裁员在仲裁程序中的作用

 

 

Asian Courts in Times of COVID: Virtualization and the New Normal

新冠肺炎时代的亚洲法院：虚拟化与新常态

 

杨康海（Alvin Yeo），新加坡王律师事务所(WongPartnership LLP, Singapore)

曾福庆（Chan Hock Keng），新加坡王律师事务所(WongPartnership LLP, Singapore)

 

 

Abstract:

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has caused restrictive measures to be established in many sectors including the legal and judicial sector; an example is the use of electronic litigation systems and video-conferencing facilities for trials. With the implementation of changes in the legal and judicial sector to adapt to restrictions arising from the pandemic, there is the question of whether the current rules governing civil-court proceedings are designed to accommodate these changes. This article seeks to explore the measures taken by courts in response to the pandemic with a focus on Asia, notably Singapore. The article will outline the legal basis for the use of live video links for the purpose of witness evidence-taking under Singapore law and the possible implications will be reviewed taking Singapore’s civil proceedings as an example in comparison with other jurisdictions.

 

Keywords: COVID-19; Singapore; virtual; trial;video link

 

摘要：前所未有的新冠肺炎流行导致包括立法和司法部门在内的许多部门采取限制性措施；例如，使用电子诉讼系统和视频会议设施进行审判。随着立法和司法部门实施变革以适应疫情带来的限制，目前的民事法庭诉讼规则是否需要适应这些变革是一个问题。本文旨在重点探讨亚洲的法院为应对疫情而采取的措施，尤其是新加坡。本文将依据新加坡现行法律，概述使用实时视频链接进行证人取证的法律依据，并将以新加坡的民事诉讼为例，与其他司法管辖区进行比较来审查可能的影响。

关键词：新冠肺炎；新加坡；虚拟；审判；视频链接

 

 

Monetizing Legal Assets: Social and Economic Benefits of Third-Party Dispute Finance in Asia

合法资产货币化：亚洲第三方纠纷融资的社会经济效益

 

邝静仪（Cheng Yee Khong）， Omni Bridgeway

 

Abstract:

This article explains third-party dispute finance, including practical issues relating to the funding process and how to choose a funder. It examines some of the social benefits of funding and its importance in an economic downturn, and looks at some of the risks of dispute finance. It also considers the regulation of dispute finance in various Asian jurisdictions, as well as recent industry trends, including the use of dispute funding by well-resourced corporates and dispute-finance products for companies. It explains funding for insolvency-related claims and funding for the enforcement of awards and judgments. Finally, it provides two case-studies in which funding provided access to justice and enabled the funded party to recover a non-performing loan in multiple jurisdictions.

 

Keywords: dispute finance; third-party funding; arbitration funding; litigation funding

 

摘要：本文解释了第三方纠纷融资，包括与融资过程和如何选择出资人有关的实际问题；还考察了融资的一些社会效益及其在经济衰退中的重要性，以及纠纷融资的一些风险。本文还考虑了亚洲各个司法管辖区对争端融资的监管，以及最近的行业趋势，包括资源充足的公司对争端融资的使用和公司的争端融资产品。解释了为破产相关债权提供资金以及为执行裁决和判决提供资金的问题。最后，本文列举了两个有关通过资金诉诸司法途径，并使受资助方能够在多个司法管辖区追回不良贷款的案例。

关键词：纠纷融资；第三方融资；仲裁资金；诉讼资金

 

Arbitration in Syria: Navigating Postwar Disputes

叙利亚仲裁：驾驭战后争端

 

法里斯·埃利亚斯·纳斯鲁拉（Faris Elias Nasrallah），沙迦新月石油公司高级仲裁顾问

 

Abstract:

The place of arbitration within the Syrian legal system has received scant academic and professional attention, and as such, remains largely unstudied. Shedding much-needed light on the nature of arbitration in Syria as a resilient form of ancient customary Arab alternative dispute resolution, this contribution appraises the salient features of the Syrian Arbitration Law 2008 and arbitration-related provisions within recent Syrian legislation. It aims to understand the position of arbitration in Syria between existing national and international law frameworks for dispute settlement and to assess the potential for establishing independent, transparent, and efficient tribunals to resolve disputes arising out of ongoing conflicts that have plagued the country since 2011. If arbitration proves to be a mechanism for ordering the peaceful settlement of postwar disputes within and concerning Syria, parties, practitioners, and stakeholders must employ perspectives that include and are capable of navigating Syria’s existing arbitration landscape.

 

Keywords: Syria; arbitration; investment law; postwar; dispute settlement

 

摘要：

叙利亚法律体系中的仲裁很少受到学术和专业人士的关注，因此在很大程度上仍未得到研究。这篇文章评估了2008年《叙利亚仲裁法》和叙利亚最近立法中与仲裁有关的条款的显著特点，为我们点明了解叙利亚仲裁作为一种古老的阿拉伯习惯替代争端解决方式的弹性形式的性质。它旨在了解叙利亚仲裁在现有国家和国际争端解决法律框架之间的地位，并评估建立独立、透明和高效的法庭以解决自2011年以来困扰该国的持续冲突所产生的争端的潜力。如果能证明仲裁可以和平解决叙利亚境内及相关战后争端，各政党、相关从业者和有关利益者就必须采用一种能够兼容并适应叙利亚现有仲裁格局的观点。

关键词：叙利亚；仲裁投资法；战后；争端解决

 

Internationalization as a Leap of Faith: Arbitration Reforms in China and the Challenges of Implementation

作为信仰之跃的国际化：中国仲裁改革及其实践挑战

 

黄凯绅（Kai-Shen Huang）, 环球360会员登录，凯原法学院

 

Abstract:

Recent years have witnessed an increasing trend in Chinese arbitration reform that emulates international norms and practices. This article examines some of these key reform measures and major challenges to their implementation. It explores in both legal and practical terms why most of these reform techniques may remain largely ineffective, showing that engaging in international norms and standards in China can be highly challenging due to their potential illegality, the general lack of institutional capacity to sustain them, and the conflicts of local ideas about the purposes of arbitration. It is thus doubtful whether commitment to satisfying the formal requirements prescribed by the legal reforms would often prevail. When it does, it is questionable whether this form of commitment would become prevalent and how it could proceed in a sustainable and coherent manner from a practical perspective.

 

Keywords: Chinese arbitration reform; legal reform in China; internationalization;dispute resolution; legal transplants

摘要：

近年来，中国仲裁改革呈现出一种效仿国际规范和实践的趋势。本文探讨了其中一些关键改革措施及其实施所面临的主要挑战，从法律和实践两个方面探讨了大多数改革技术很可能难以实施的原因——国际规范和标准可能因与中国法律体系不兼容而难以适用并被认定违法；普遍缺乏维持这些规范和标准的机构能力以及适用地难以形成对仲裁目的的统一认识。能否维持满足法制改革所提出的形式性要求令人生疑；同样的，即使可以维系这种承诺，这种形式的承诺是否能得以普及，以及如何从实际角度以可持续和连贯的方式进行，都是值得怀疑的。

关键词：中国仲裁改革；中国法律改革；国际化；争议解决；合法移植

 

Independent Directors and Team Production in Japanese Corporate Governance

日本公司治理中的独立董事与团队生产

 

安德鲁·约翰逊（Andrew Johnston），考文垂华威大学法学院

宫本康平（Kohei Miyamoto），东京中央大学法学院

 

Abstract:

Independent directors (IDs) in listed Japanese companies have gradually increased with the transplant of the Western model of the monitoring board. In practice, however, IDs act more like the mediating hierarch in team production theory than the agent of the shareholders, albeit with a number of differences from Blair and Stout’s seminal model. Japanese IDs mediate formally and informally, resolving vertical disputes between groups of executives as they contest control of the company. Given the norm of lifetime employment, such vertical disputes are common in Japanese companies and are economically significant, since failure to resolve them can result in destruction of firm-specific human capital. The article explores the scope for mediating hierarchy in Japanese law and corporate governance practice, then develops three case-studies which highlight the role played by IDs. Their practice is shaped by and supports social norms that emphasize the importance of continuity in team production.

 

Keywords: corporate governance; team production; agency theory; independent directors; non-executive directors; mediating hierarchy; Japan

 

摘要：

随着西方监事会模式的移植，日本上市公司的独立董事逐渐增多。然而，在实践中，独立董事更像是团队生产理论中的中介层级，而不是股东的代理人——尽管与Blair和Stout的开创性模型有一些不同。日本独立董事可以进行正式和非正式的调解，解决高管群体之间争夺公司控制权的纵向纠纷。考虑到终身雇佣的规范，这种纵向纠纷在日本公司很常见，而且具有重要的经济意义，因为如果不能解决这些纠纷，可能会导致公司特定人力资本的破坏。本文探讨了日本法律和公司治理实践中调解等级制度的范围，然后进行了三个案例研究，突出了独立董事所发挥的作用——他们的行动受到强调团队生产中连续性重要性的社会规范的影响，并反过来又支持了这些规范。

关键词：公司治理；团队生产；代理理论；独立董事；非执行董事；中介层次；日本

 

Principles of Asian Contract Law at the Crossroads of Standardization and Legal Pluralism

处于规范与法律多元化十字路口的亚洲合同法原则

 

A.Grebieniow，华沙大学法学院华沙跨国法中心

 

Abstract:

The Principles of Asian Contract Law (PACL) are the most recent addition to the series of uniform laws regarding transnational commercial contracts. This time, the harmonization initiative must address the problem of a great variety of legal traditions, all of which are quite difficult to reconcile. The author focuses on the object and objectives of the PACL by reconsidering the notion of “Asian law” and the alleged cultural neutrality of contract law as a legal discipline. The paper argues that the PACL project lacks clarity. Its ambitious objectives, while apparently intelligible, fail to produce the desired results in their entirety: the Asian regional harmonization of contract law turns out to resemble its occidental forerunners. The study goes beyond the traditional comparative law. It explores the model law (in the making) in a broader context of legal policy, parallel regional private-law-making efforts in the field of contract law as well as in the context of legal globalization.

 

Keywords: Asian law; transnational law; soft law; contract law; harmonization; legal pluralism

 

摘要：

《亚洲合同法原则》是关于跨国商业合同的一系列统一法律的最新补充。这一次，统一倡议必须解决各种各样的法律传统的问题——所有这些传统都很难调和。作者通过重新考虑“亚洲法律”的概念和所谓的合同法作为一门法律学科的文化中立性，重点关注《亚洲合同法原则》的目标和目的。论文认为《亚洲合同法原则》项目缺乏明确性。其雄心勃勃的目标虽然可以理解，但未能产生预期的整体结果：合同法的亚洲区域统一仍与西方前身相似。本文不仅是传统的比较法研究，其在更广阔的法律政策视域下探索制定中的模范法，在合同法和法律全球化背景中讨论相近的区域司法制定实践。

关键词：亚洲法律；跨国法；软法；合同法；协调；法律多元主义

 

Book Review

书   评

 

Multi-Tier Approaches to the Resolution of International Disputes: A Global and Comparative Study.

Edited by Anselmo Reyes and Weixia Gu. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 400 pp. $191.00

 

《国际争端解决的多层次方法：全球的比较性研究》，作者：Jie (Jeanne) Huang

 

Venture capital law in China - Venture Capital Law in China.

By Lin Lin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 340 pp. Hardcover $110.50

 

《中国风险投资法——中国风险投资法律》，作者：Alexander Loke。

 

Fintech Regulation in China: Principles, Policies and Practices.

 By Robin Hui Huang . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 314 pp. Hardcover $110

 

《中国的金融技术监管：原则、政策和实践》，作者：郭雳（Li Guo）