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Major amendment to Chinese Arbitration Act after three decades
This guest post is written by Jie Zheng, Assistant Professor & Research Fellow, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
On 12th September 2025, the 17th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress passed the Amendment to the Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter “Chinese Arbitration Act”) to be effective from 1st March 2026[1], which was first adopted in 1994. Since its adoption, China has undergone enormous economic reforms and a more urgent need to align the legislation with international arbitration practices. There were only two minor revisions in 2009 and 2017 to fix technical inconsistencies with other procedural laws. In July 2021, the Ministry of Justice of China released a Draft Revision of the Arbitration Law for public consultation. [2] This was the first comprehensive reform since 1994. The draft was reviewed by the Sanding Committee of the National People’s Congress three times. Read more
Personal Jurisdiction, Consent, and the Law of Agency
I have long argued – in articles, blog posts, and amicus briefs – that it violates due process to invoke a forum selection clause to obtain personal jurisdiction over a defendant who was not a party to the agreement in which the clause appears. This position has not yet achieved universal acceptance. The state courts in New York, in particular, have repeatedly held that forum selection clauses can be used to assert personal jurisdiction over non-party defendants who are “closely related” to the parties or the transaction. In this blog post, I use a recent case—Bandari v. QED Connect Inc.—decided by Magistrate Judge Gary Stein (SDNY) to highlight some of the problems with the “closely related” test. Read more
Can a Seat Court Injunct a Foreign Non-Party to an Arbitration? Singapore High Court clarifies in Alphard Maritime v Samson Maritime (2025) SGHC 154
This guest post is posted on behalf of Kamakshi Puri, Senior Associate at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Delhi, India, and dual-qualified lawyer (India and England and Wales).
The Singapore High Court recently clarified the scope of the court’s jurisdiction over foreign non-parties to the arbitration. In an application to set aside two interim injunctions, in Alphard Maritime Ltd. v Samson Maritime Ltd. & Ors. (2025) SGHC 154,[1] the court held that the the seat per se did not confer jurisdiction against non-parties to an arbitration, and that jurisdiction would first have to be established through regular service-out procedures before the seat court could grant an injunction against a non-party.
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Quick and easy access to German case law in private international law – One year of ‘IPRspr 2.0’ (and almost 100 years of ‘IPRspr’)
Quick and easy access to German case law in private international law – One year of ‘IPRspr 2.0’ (and almost 100 years of ‘IPRspr’)
A comprehensive and carefully curated database providing free access to German court decisions on private international law – www.iprspr.de
Ralf Michaels/Jan Peter Schmidt
Perspectives Contentieuses Internationales (PCI), Volume 4
by Fabienne Jault-Seseke
Volume 4 of the Revue Perspectives Contentieuses Internationales (PCI) has been published. Available in open access here.
It includes a special feature on ‘the International Commercial Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal’ edited by Sandrine Clavel and Daniel Barlow. This feature provides an insight into the history of the chamber, its specific characteristics, its place in the European market for justice, and how it operates. It also includes a presentation of its case law in private international law by Marie-Elodie Ancel and François Mailhé. Case law in arbitration is the subject of three articles by Malik Laazouzi.
Widiez on Specialisation of Private International Law
Gaëlle Widiez (Bourgogne University) has recently edited a volume entitled The Specialization of Private International Law: Reflections from the Perspective of Business Law (La spécialisation du droit international privé : Réflexion dans le champ du droit des affaires), published by LexisNexis. Read more