“Despite the divergent views on the acceptability of arbitrators facilitating settlement in a pending arbitration, a merged system seems to work well in Asia, especially in China due to its legal culture that emphasizes mediation.” The question about why the combination of arbitration and mediation procedure works in China was brought forth in the article of “Integrating Mediation into Arbitration: Why It Works in China”, which was co-authored by Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler and Fan Kun. The English Version of this article has been published on the Journal of International Arbitration (August, 2008, Issue 4, Vol. 25) and the Chinese Version was translated by Fan Kun and published on the latest Quarterly Beijing Arbitration hosted by BAC, attention please.

　　In March 2007, Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, visited China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), BAC and Wuhan Arbitration Commission for her research on the topic of “arbitration in China”. During her visit to BAC, she made a deep discussion with Mr. Jiang Ping, Chairman of BAC and Mr. Che Pizhao, Professor of Tsinghua University who is also the commission member of BAC.
The article explored the reasons of the successful combination of arbitration and mediation in China from the perspectives of history, culture, economy, and politics. Also it further analyzed the potential impact of this practice in China especially in the international arbitration field. The article specially focused on the practice of combination of arbitration and mediation in China as well as its strength and weakness. Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler mentioned in the conclusion that,

　　“With the growth of international arbitration in China, it may be expected that Western arbitrators, whilst sitting on the same arbitral tribunals, will learn from their Chinese colleagues the advantages of the combined approach. Indeed, it already appears that objections to such a combined approach raised elsewhere are less strong now, and that the opponents are beginning to see that the combination may have some merits.”
“One example is the reforms undertaken by the BAC in its latest Arbitration Rules. To address the concerns of impartiality of the mediator-turned-arbitrator, the BAC now allows the parties to request the replacement of an arbitrator on the ground that the results of the award may be affected by his involvement in the mediation proceedings.”

　　In the end, the article expressed the expectation to the combination system of mediation and arbitration:
“To this end, greater efforts still need to be made in order to familiarize arbitrators with the practice of facilitating settlement and to implement the necessary procedural safeguards,54 so that the integration can be used effectively to improve the efficiency of arbitration.”

　　Notes of Editors: On April 1st, 2008, BAC released “Mediation Rules of Beijing Arbitration Commission”（Mediation Rules） and “Panel of Mediators of BAC” for the first time. For putting the Mediation Rules into practice and improving the arbitration and mediation services of BAC, BAC has organized a 6-day mediation training courses in BAC together with Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, US in March 2008. With high professional level, these courses were the first co-organized by Straus Center in Asia area. The training attracted 40 arbitrators and won high appraisal. According to the feedbacks of arbitrators, this training has great instructional meaning to mediation works by arbitrators and has greatly improved the success rate of mediation. BAC has cooperated with Straus Center by organizing mediation training again from 5 Dec.2008 to 14 Dec.2008 for further introducing the mediation to the arbitrators and other people as an effective dispute resolution method.
　　(Please visit http://www.bjac.org.cn/news/view.asp?id=1530&cataid=1 for more information)

　　 BAC will constantly explore the methods of combination of mediation theory and practice. As one of the Arbitration Commissions in China devoted to introduce the dispute resolution system in China to the world, BAC will make great effort to concentrate on the theory of dispute resolution in the fields like arbitration, mediation and DAB etc., and will try to convert theory into practice in order to adapt the economical globalization. Thus, BAC will offer more efficient dispute resolution methods for the parties.

(Gu Xuan)