A comparative study of the China International Commercial Court as a cross-border dispute resolution mechanism

ABSTRACT With its evolving geopolitical and economic ambitions, China has also simultaneously pursued influence in the legal sphere. A significant moment in this strategic move was the establishment of the China International Commercial Court (CICC) in 2018. Despite its membership in the growing international commercial court marketplace, the CICC has published only nine decisions, far fewer than peer courts in jurisdictions across Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The goal of this paper is to understand why those nine specific cases have appeared before the CICC and provide insight into how those cases have been adjudicated relative to comparable cases that have appeared before other international commercial courts. Using comparative analysis, the paper finds that the CICC reflects unique characteristics of China's governing legal system while diverging from its peers in notable ways, such as case volume and jurisdictional diversity. Several contributing factors – including the CICC's preference for discretionary jurisdiction and China-centric caseload – are explored as contributors to these divergences. The paper breaks new ground in this subject matter by being the first to study the nine publicly available CICC decisions in detail and conduct such a comparison, ultimately offering insight into what is still a relatively enigmatic CICC.