Hubei High People’s Court formulated the Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Judicial Review of Arbitration in November 2020.

On 25 Nov. 2020, Hubei High People’s court formulated and issued the Guiding Opinions of Hubei High People’s Court on Regulating Judicial Review of Arbitration to Support the Healthy Development of Arbitration (Trial) (“the Guiding Opinions”, 湖北省高级人民法院关于规范仲裁司法审查支持仲裁事业健康发展的指导意见(试行)) and Guidelines of Hubei Courts for the Adjudication of Judicial Review Cases for Arbitration (Trial) (“the Guidelines”, 湖北法院仲裁司法审查案件审理指南(试行)), to clarify the application of law in the judicial review of arbitration, as well as to unify the judgment criteria and to standardize the procedures.

The Guiding Opinions and the Guidelines require people’s courts at all levels in Hubei Province to comply with the following requirements:

Firstly, the courts shall fully understand the function of arbitration as a means of non-litigation dispute resolution.

Secondly, the courts shall implement the judicial review system of arbitration. The courts shall fully respect the party autonomy, and conduct judicial review in strict compliance with the Civil Procedure Law, the Arbitration Law, the New York Convention and the statutory justifications provided in the SPC’s judicial interpretations concerning the arbitration; and designate specific tribunals (a collegial panel(s)) for foreign-related commercial cases to handle judicial review cases of arbitration.

Thirdly, they shall improve the working mechanism of supporting and supervising the arbitration, establish a centralized management platform for the data and information of arbitration judicial review cases, unify the law application standards of arbitration judicial review cases throughout the Hubei Province, and standardize the procedures such as the determination of the validity of arbitration agreements, the enforcement of cases, the preservation, the revocation of arbitration awards and the refusal for enforcing arbitration awards.