On 17 February 2017, Ian Pennicott QC SC, Calvin Cheuk, and Kaiser Leung participated in two law conferences held in Shanghai at LLinks Law Offices and the Shanghai International Arbitration Center. The focus of the conferences was on international arbitration and construction disputes. For a longer summary of the trip, please see below.
Summary
On 17 February 2017, Mr. Ian Pennicott QC SC, Mr. Calvin Cheuk, and Mr. Kaiser Leung of Des Voeux Chambers (“DVC”) participated in two law conferences held in Shanghai at LLinks Law Offices (通力律师事务所) (“LLinks”) and Shanghai International Arbitration Center (“SHIAC”) respectively. At the DVC end, Miss Ellen Pang had been responsible for organizing the conferences.
Mr. Pennicott, Mr. Cheuk, and Mr. Leung visited LLinks in the morning and were welcomed by Mr. Yang Peiming and Mr. David Wu (partners of Llinks) and other representatives of LLinks. On the basis of PowerPoint slides that had been provided to LLinks in advance, Mr. Pennicott and Mr. Cheuk discussed various aspects of international arbitration at the conference, including pre-action preparation, conduct of hearing, enforcement of awards, costs, and other procedural matters in international arbitration. The conference lasted an hour and a half, including a brief Q & A session, and was attended by approximately 20 lawyers from LLinks with a further unknown number from LLinks Beijing office who were listening by telephone.
Upon arrival at SHIAC in the afternoon, the three representatives of DVC were greeted by Mr. Huang Wen (the Deputy Secretary-General of SHIAC), Mr. Ji Nuo (partner of Fangda Partners), Ms. Wang Weijun (Deputy Secretary-General of SHIAC), and other representatives of SHIAC.
At the conference, Mr. Huang discussed various aspects of construction disputes and the difficulties in ascertaining the governing law of international construction contracts. Mr. Pennicott, Mr. Cheuk, and Mr. Leung spoke on the topic of “International Infrastructure and Construction Disputes- Is China ready for it?”. The presentations were focused on an assumed set of facts, PowerPoint slides and speaking notes having been provided in advance, and covered different facets of international arbitration including the assembly of suitable teams and other pre-action preparation, applications for interim measures, various arbitration rules, conduct of hearings, enforcement of awards, and costs.
Mr. Ji concluded the conference by highlighting the differences between the interim measures available in Hong Kong and in PRC, and noted that practitioners should pay attention to these differences in order to better prepare themselves for future international infrastructure and construction disputes.
DVC would like to take this opportunity to thank LLinks, Fangda Partners, SHIAC, and everyone else who kindly assisted in the organization of these events and in making them possible.
