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Guiding Case No. 196:
Supreme People’s Court Adopts a Liberal Approach to Arbitration While Leaving Room for Unexplored Situations

Guiding Case No. 196 (“GC196”) holds that, under Chinese law, an agreement to arbitrate is independently enforceable, even if the agreement was intended to be part of a larger contract that never fully formed. Through a comparison of GC196 with U.S. law, Tyler Atkinson explains why GC196 shows that Chinese law is arguably more favorable to arbitration than the law of the United States, a jurisdiction that, itself, strongly favors arbitration. He also shares practical insights about what companies affected by GC196 should do to avoid the risk of being forced into arbitration.

The United States Approach to Foreign Sovereign Immunity

Written by Judge John M. Walker Jr., a senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, this article provides an overview of the U.S. approach to foreign sovereign immunity. First, it traces the doctrine’s origins in early American jurisprudence and recounts the development of the doctrine and its eventual codification in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”) of 1976. The article then summarizes relevant provisions and certain judicial interpretations of the FSIA.

China’s Top Court Frees “Several” Birds with One Key

A little-known Q&A tool used within China’s court system since 2023 was recently brought to the spotlight. With its promising performance, the tool allows China’s highest court to “free several birds with one key”. The far-reaching impact of the tool also lays a solid foundation for China to develop AI-assisted adjudication.