The China International Commercial Court: towards an integrated dispute resolution system

The recent proliferation of international commercial courts has become a distinct phenomenon in the landscape of international dispute resolution. While the newer international commercial courts have followed the earlier ones and exhibited features of ‘specialisation’ and ‘internationalisation’, some have gone further to develop a new feature of ‘integration’ by incorporating elements of other methods of dispute resolution—notably, arbitration—into their design and operations. In this regard, the newly established China International Commercial Court (CICC) breaks new ground by creating a ‘one-stop’ and diversified dispute resolution mechanism, which institutionally integrates litigation, arbitration, and mediation into one unified platform. This mechanism is guided by the idea of ‘diversified dispute resolution mechanism’ reform promoted and practiced by the Chinese judicial system; underpinned by institutional arrangements such as the International Commercial Expert Committee (ICEC) and the Coordination and Guidance Office of the CICC; and implemented by procedural designs that deeply integrate international commercial litigation with arbitration and mediation. By conceptualizing the mechanism as an ‘integrated dispute resolution’ (IDR) system, enhancing institutional cooperation and setting up demonstrative IDR centres, the CICC and the ‘one-stop mechanism’ can be further improved to provide an innovative ‘Chinese approach’ to international commercial dispute resolution, for the Belt and Road region and beyond.