On January 12th 1996, the Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC) held its third meeting to summarize the work completed since the Commissions establishment, arrange the work to be done in 1996, and make decisions for the future.
I The Commissions work in 1995
The BAC was established on September 28, 1995 in accordance with the Arbitration Law of the People's Republic of China, and after registering with the Beijing Judicial Department. The Office of the BAC began official business on October 5th, and the achievements of its work thus far are listed below.
Accepted 7 arbitration cases. To date, we have received no less than 400 consultations, and accepted 7 cases. Arbitral tribunals have been constituted for 4 of these cases, which are currently in the process of arbitration. One case has already been concluded through reconciliation.
Organized arbitrator training. From October to the middle of November 1995, all arbitrators were divided into two groups to receive training on Arbitration Law of P. R. China, the rules of arbitration, and ethical standards for arbitrators. We awarded letters of engagement to the arbitrators and made a list of engaged arbitrators.
Conducted research. In mid-December 1995, we invited the drafting experts from the legislative commission of the NPC Standing Committee, the leaders of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council and the Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen arbitration commissions to research new problems arising from the establishment of arbitration organizations. We then composed a report on this research and sent it out to the relevant departments.
Created publicity. To date, 17 newspapers and magazines have published 24 articles with regard to the introduction of arbitration. Programs about arbitration were also shown on Morning Beijing of BTV and Chinese News of CCTV. Hong Kong Commercial Daily introduced arbitration as well. The Office of the BAC has negotiated with the Half an Hour of Economics of CCTV and the Legal System Garden of Central Peoples Broadcast Station to create a recent plan for the publicity of arbitration and got ready to broadcast a series of programs about arbitration around the spring festival.
Directly delivered publicity materials to more than 400 large and medium-sized enterprises. Greatly supported by the commissioner of the BAC and the arbitrators, more than 20,000 pieces of publicity material and about 30,000 copies of the compensation agreement were sent off through 15 departments, including the administration for industry and commerce, the science committee, house management institute, bar association, commercial association, and others.
Originated a restricted publication, Beijing Arbitration Messages, which is temporarily a bimonthly. The first issue has now been published. This publication is related to information communication, academic discussion and research with regard to arbitration and it is aimed at arbitrators, national arbitration organizations, and other relevant departments.
We consider that a lot of work has been done within no more than three months. On the whole, we are optimistic, especially with regard to hardware. At the same time, we must pay more attention to a serious problem: the absence of cases, which will severely prevent our development if not solved. Therefore, addressing the shortage of cases and further publicizing arbitration should be regarded as our essential tasks in the near future and the responsibility of all of the committees members, arbitrators and staff. Solving the problem of the lack of cases must be done in accordance with the Arbitration Law, aid in the further development of arbitration, and further the central goal of the development of the Commission.
II The BACs Development Goals
As required by the Arbitration Law, the BAC strives to be a commission which is truly independent, impartial, top-ranking in the nation, and most authoritative. The Office of the BAC should make efforts to reach our goal of having the best services, the most excellent management, the highest quality, and the greatest efficiency.
With such general goals, the BAC has experimented fearlessly, made progress steadily, gained experience, and made ourselves well-known. In only a short period of time, the public image of the BAC has been built up. At present, in order to strengthen the publicity of the Commission, the BAC suggests that all of the committees members, both the arbitrators and the staff, should engage in their own personal publicity efforts. Especially for the large and medium-sized enterprises which are frequently in business, publicity should be conducted to make the BAC familiar to more and more people. The Commission considered that the research on arbitration should be intensified, especially on how to write an arbitration clause in a standard form contract, how to identify the validity of arbitration agreements, how to apply the law to arbitrations, and the problems associated with arbitration procedures.
The commission encourages an investigation into possible ways of developing arbitration in the context of the socialist market economy system. Going forward, there must be a process to move from familiarity and acceptance of arbitration to its widespread application. Accordingly it is impossible to become too well-known. We should be bold in making innovations and review our progress ceaselessly.
III Decisions for the Future
In the meeting, the list of the second group of arbitrators and the member list of the disciplinary committee were both discussed and adopted. It was also decided not to set up the expert consultative committee temporarily.