Press Release: Stanford Law School – China Guiding Cases Update

CGCP

 

The CGCP is pleased to publish the English translations of Guiding Cases Nos. 32-37.  Guiding Cases Nos. 33 and 37 are the first two Guiding Cases (“GCs”) released by the Supreme People’s Court of China that are related to arbitration.  Both cases reveal challenges facing foreign parties after arbitration has concluded.

Guiding Case No. 33: Cargill International S.A. received an arbitral award against a Chinese corporate group.  According to the award, a member of the Chinese group had to mortgage its assets to Cargill as security for the repayment of the debt.  In the end, however, these assets were transferred by the debtor to its affiliate companies.  Despite the court’s determination that the related property transfer contracts were invalid, Cargill was not able to reach the debtor’s assets.  Why not?

Guiding Case No. 37:  Shanghai Jwell Machinery Co., Ltd. (????????????) received an arbitral award against Retech Aktiengesellschaft, Switzerland.  Jwell applied to the Lenzburg Court of the Swiss Confederation for the recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award, but to no avail.  Later, Jwell discovered that Retech’s assets were in Shanghai and immediately applied to a court in Shanghai to “seal up” Retech’s assets.  Retech raised an objection on the ground that Jwell’s application for enforcement had already exceeded the time limit set forth in the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China.  The court ruled against Retech.  Why?

We find these two GCs very interesting and believe that they provide lessons that can benefit all interested parties, especially foreign investors.  We would like to collect more information to produce a piece of commentary.  Help us unravel these two GCs by sending your insights to [email protected] (in the subject line, please use: Unravel GC33 and 37; in the body of your message, please let us know whether you want your contribution to remain anonymous if selected).  In particular, we are looking for information, answers, and insights regarding these issues.

For detailed discussion of GCs and their significance, please join our first Guiding Cases SeminarTM on April 22.

The CGCP thanks the Fu Tak Iam Foundation Limited for supporting our work.  If you like our products and want to help us sustain our high-quality work, please donate today.

The CGCP Team
China Guiding Cases Project
Stanford Law School
https://cgc.law.stanford.edu
http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/cgcp/
[email protected]