On February 15, 2022, Ms. Susan Finder spoke on a EU-China Legal and Judicial Cooperation (EUPLANT) panel on “Cross-Border Judicial Cooperation with BRI Countries” co-sponsored by the KU Leuven University Centre for Global Governance and Queen Mary University School of Law, supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The panel was chaired by Prof. Dr. Julien Chaisse (City University of Hong Kong). Other speakers included Dr. Matthew Erie (University of Oxford), Prof. Dr. Li Yuwen (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Prof. Dr. Li Bin (李滨) (Beijing Normal University). The subject of her presentation was the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and Belt & Road Initiative, also the subject of her research, writing, and personal experience. She spoke about the role of the SPC in creating a Chinese domestic and foreign-related legal infrastructure that keeps pace with China’s place in the world. She used the example of Chinese Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors undertaking projects in BRI countries to illustrate the link between domestic and foreign-related law and the complexities of legal relationships underlying those projects. She described the principal SPC BRI policy and guidance documents, including the latest one, released in January, 2022. Ms. Finder summarized what the SPC is doing to support BRI dispute resolution in the areas of arbitration, litigation, and mediation, and what to expect going forward.
Ms. Finder briefly mentioned the role of the China International Commercial Court in supporting BRI dispute resolution and China-related dispute resolution generally, of which she is a member of its international commercial expert committee. It should be noted that the Fourth Civil Division of the SPC expressed their sincere appreciation to her for her assistance in reviewing the English version of its 2019 Annual Report On Judicial Review of Commercial Arbitration, published in late 2021.
