Whether to use litigation or arbitration in international trade
作者:Seth Wang 发布时间:2023年04月07日
Arbitration or litigation has always been an issue to be considered in foreign-related disputes. Arbitration has several advantages: 1. Even if there is no agreement, attorney fees are borne by the losing party. 2. The requirements for the form of evidence are not high. 3. The first ruling is final, which theoretically takes less time than litigation. Previously, in my advice to clients, I also generally suggested arbitration as a way to resolve disputes. However, a recent commercial arbitration case made me lose confidence in domestic arbitration in China. The presiding arbitrator in this case is a former government employee appointed by the Arbitration Commission. Even the result of the arbitration completely contradicts the basic facts of the case, we very much doubt that the arbitrator has misrepresented the law and accepted bribes. But arbitration is final, making it difficult to change the award. Moreover, domestic supervision of arbitrators is not strict and perfect, which leads to frequent corruption in arbitral institutions. For this reason, I think it is prudent to suggest that the parties to the contract should not choose arbitration to resolve disputes. If judges of first instance make mistakes, appealing courts and judges may correct them. If the arbitrators make mistakes or even estimate the wrong judgment, the possibility of the loser being able to correct the error is much smaller.