Over the past 10 years, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court (NIPC), in East China's Jiangsu province, has dealt with a total of 2,389 foreign-related civil and commercial cases and arbitrated cases for judicial review, involving 60 plus countries and regions. 

It has also concluded a number of typical cases with rule-setting significance and global influence, which have helped promote the rule of law and injected vitality into the higher-level open economy. 

In February 2023, an international commercial tribunal was established at the court upon approval by the Supreme People's Court (SPC). In March 2002, the court was included in the first batch of Chinese courts with jurisdiction over foreign-related commercial affairs. 

Since then, the court has been serving the country's key national strategies, as well as protecting the legitimate rights and interests of domestic and foreign investors in accordance with the law. In 2021, it was recognized by the SPC for its efforts in foreign-related commercial trials. 

With the rise of many new types of foreign-related commercial cases, case hearing has become increasingly challenging. 

According to NIPC Vice-president Feng Chi, there are an increasing number of cases involving jurisdiction conflicts arising from the same dispute that involves parallel litigations in multiple countries, and the trial of such cases involves international treaties and practices, and the application of applicable laws, some of which require clear transaction rules and standardized behavioral boundaries to balance the rights and interests of all parties. 

The court strictly adheres to international treaties and respects international practices, paving the way for the development of enterprises under the rule of law. 

It has been optimizing the country's law-based and international business environment through fair justice, allowing Chinese market entities to embrace more business opportunities. 

The court fully implements pre-entry national treatment and a negative list to ease foreign investors' concerns about unfair competition. 

Foreign-related commercial trials involve market entities of different nationalities, only by accurately applying international treaties and practices and aligning judicial protection with international standards can the court enable foreign investors to participate in the construction of a national unified market in China. 

In addition to legal means, the court launched a diversified resolution platform for international commercial disputes with several mediation centers in March 2021. 

Due to the cross-border and cross jurisdictional characteristics of international commercial disputes, the traditional judicial and quasi-judicial dispute resolutions based on domestic litigation and international arbitration lack flexibility and timeliness.

Thanks to the one-stop dispute resolution platform, mediation personnel from non-public sector were introduced, and parties involved in litigation have more options to resolve their disputes. 

Besides the platform, the court also pools legal service providers and improves the diversified resolution mechanism for foreign-related disputes.

An international business expert committee consisting of 20 senior professors and experts from domestic and foreign universities was launched to meet the diversified needs of parties.

Foreign-related trial work should play its role as a bridge in advancing the rule of law in domestic and foreign-related affairs in a coordinated manner, serve and safeguard the open economy, and achieve win-win development in cooperation, said NIPC President Li Houlong.