The Foreign Law Ascertainment Platform of the Supreme People's Court was launched on the International Commercial Tribunal website (http://cicc.court.gov.cn) on the morning of 29 Nov, 2019, marking the official establishment of a unified platform for the ascertainment of extraterritorial law in courts across the country. Vice President of CUPL Shi Jianzhong attended the launching ceremony. Gao Xiang, Director of the Research Centre for Ascertainment of Foreign Law of CUPL, took part in the signing ceremony of the platform co-construction agreement.
There are currently five ascertainment centres under the unified foreign law ascertainment platform of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Court ASEAN Legal Research Base, Benchmark Chambers International & Benchmark International Mediation Center, the Research Centre for Ascertainment of Foreign Law of CUPL, ECUPL Center for Proof of Foreign Law and the Wuhan University Center of Ascertainment of Foreign Law.
After the signing ceremony, Gao Xiang reported on the work of the centre in the previous year, summarised the difficulties and problems existing in the work of the center, and shared his views on addressing these difficulties and problems and on the centre's future development plans. He expressed the hope that the Centre could provide the trial of foreign-related commercial maritime cases in China with better service.
The launch of the Foreign Law Ascertainment Platform of the Supreme People's Court is an important measure of the Supreme People's Court to implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee's opinions on the establishment of 'Belt and Road' mechanisms and institutions for the settlement of international commercial disputes, solve the 'bottleneck' problem that restricts the foreign-related judicial practice, and to further optimise the business environment ruled by law. The Platform is open to People's Court at all levels, litigants and attorneys, cross-border business, investment or cross-border disputes requiring the ascertainment of extraterritorial laws, and open to legislatures, executive branch, arbitration institutions or other entities that require knowledge of extraterritorial laws.
