Chinese and Singaporean delegations jointly announced publication of a collection of international commercial cases from both countries, at the fourth Singapore-China Legal and Judicial Roundtable 2020 on Nov 30.

Titled A Compendium of Singapore-China International Commercial Cases Curated for their Relevance to the Belt and Road Initiative, the collection was co-published by China’s Supreme People’s Court and its Singaporean counterpart.

China contributed to the collection with nine cases that have major guiding significance in the application of international conventions and proper law, ascertainment of legal facts, and international judicial assistance.

They reflected that China’s courts follow the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and make practical efforts to improve their mechanisms for international commercial dispute resolution, properly settle disputes of that type, actively create a business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized and serve the building of an open world economy.

At the roundtable Zhou Qiang, president and chief justice of the SPC, expressed his appreciation for the contributions by experts and publishing organizations to the compendium.

The collection is the latest result of the top courts in deepening practical cooperation, and also a helpful exchange of cases with a country applying common law. It built a solid foundation for future deeper and systemic cooperation, said Zhou.

He said he hopes the judicial field of the two nations will follow an open and tolerated cooperative spirit and an equal and pragmatic concept, summarize experience, build consensuses and further deepen cooperation on judge training, personnel exchanges and case studying. He expected that the practices and cooperation will create a sound rule of law environment for regional and international societies free from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ready for the world’s economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, said Zhou.

Sundaresh Menon, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Singapore, appreciated the SPC’s substantial support for the collection. He said the smooth publishing of the compendium is the latest result of mutual learning of laws and procedures between Chinese and Singaporean courts and a milestone for the two nations’ cooperation.

The cases in the compendium discuss a series of important subjects that emerged in the economic and trade activities under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and interpret the significance of international commercial dispute settlement, which is conducive to improving communications and mutual understanding between the two sides as well as regional cooperation in legal areas, said Menon.