When In China, Watch Your Back … -To-Back!

The incremental globalization of commercial law is a trend that few in this area have still to notice. As relentless as that trend may be, it still lags far behind developments in international trade. This discrepancy is the source of legal risk and is particularly acute in the export of advanced manufactured goods into China.

Understandably, Chinese buyers prefer the sense of familiarity associated with their own system of legal rules and processes and they will often push for a Chinese Law contract. Whilst commercial lawyers advising in Chinese projects are getting used to Chinese Law and arbitral procedure; nevertheless, the differences between Chinese business law and English business law are too many and substantial to be simply glossed over or, worse still, ignored.