I INTRODUCTION
The Civil Procedure Law and the Arbitration Law of China
regulate arbitrations seated in China. China is pro-arbitration and
arbitration is preferred to litigation, which suffers from
inefficiency, administrative interference and local protectionism.
Because the Arbitration Law requires arbitrations seated in China
to be administered by a Chinese arbitral institution, a number of
prominent arbitral institutions have emerged.
Competition among these institutions to be the best has been
fierce to date. Importantly, while the China International Economic
and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) has traditionally been
the preferred arbitral institution for foreign-related disputes,
and has continued to strive to do so with the announcement of its
new rules on 1 January 2015, it faces serious challenges from its
split-off Shanghai sub-commission, now formally known as the
Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC), which has been
able to take
