As the Leading Area marks the fifth anniversary of its development and we are standing at a new starting point for the ¡°15th Five-Year Plan¡± period, how can the judiciary better serve high-standard opening up and the development of emerging pillar industries?

On August 26, the Shanghai Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court (hereinafter referred to as the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court) officially launched its series of press conferences on ¡°Striving Toward the ¡®15th Five-Year Plan¡¯ and Advancing the Development of the Leading Area¡±, aimed at supporting and safeguarding the high-quality development of the Leading Area. The first press conference focused on two themes ¡ª foreign-related commercial adjudication and commercial adjudication involving emerging pillar industries ¡ª and separately released adjudication white papers and reported related typical cases, showcasing in a concentrated manner the results achieved in adjudication work in these fields over the past five years of the Leading Area¡¯s development and responding through judicial practice to the new needs of the Leading Area¡¯s high-quality development during the ¡°15th Five-Year Plan¡± period.

Zheng Tianyi, Vice President of the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court, Yu Wei, Vice President of the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court, Zhang Zhuoyu, Chief Judge of the Free Trade Zone Tribunal, and Du Xiaochun, Chief Judge of the Commercial Tribunal, attended the press conference. The press conference was chaired by Yan Jianyi, Deputy Director of the Party Political Department and spokesperson of the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court. Some deputies to the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Congress, as well as journalists from national and Shanghai-based media outlets, attended.

High-Quality Foreign-Related Commercial Adjudication Serves High-Standard Opening Up

The white paper shows that from July 2021 to June 2026, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court accepted a total of 14,339 commercial cases involving aviation, the Lin-gang Special Area, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China, foreign parties, and foreign-invested enterprises, and concluded 13,965 cases. It also handled 3,419 arbitration-related judicial review cases, including applications for arbitration preservation.

By case type, contract disputes accounted for 82.88%, and disputes related to companies accounted for 11.65%. Among contract disputes, disputes over sales contracts, service contracts, and loan contracts were the most common. As new forms of business such as offshore trade, cross-border investment and financing, and digital trade accelerate their concentration in Pudong, Chinese and foreign business entities have seen a parallel rise in their demand for both the breadth and precision of foreign-related commercial judicial services.

In terms of case disposition, over the past 5 years, 7,464 cases were concluded through mediation, withdrawal of claims, applications for judicial confirmation, and other means, with the mediation and withdrawal rate reaching 53.5%; among these, cases involving applications for judicial confirmation of mediation agreements saw a particularly significant increase.

In terms of the distribution of countries and regions, the cases covered 43 countries and regions worldwide, of which countries and regions participating in the ¡°Belt and Road Initiative¡± accounted for approximately 44%, and the number of related cases increased markedly.

Faced with increasingly diverse and complex foreign-related commercial disputes, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court has proactively benchmarked itself against high-standard international economic and trade rules and served the overall work of high-standard opening up with high-quality judicial services.

In terms of rule supply, through the grassroots legislative contact point of the Free Trade Zone Tribunal, it has gradually established four working mechanisms covering the sorting of legislative leads, the conversion of legislative projects, consultation on legislative argumentation, and the testing of legislative effectiveness, thereby promoting sound interaction between legislation and the judiciary. In terms of specialized adjudication, it has improved foreign-related adjudication mechanisms, established an adjudication mechanism integrating professional judges, expert jurors, and expert consultation, and promoted the in-depth application of judicial big data.

To further enhance the effectiveness of diversified resolution of foreign-related commercial disputes, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court has relied on the ¡°One-Stop Studio for the Resolution of Foreign-Related Commercial Disputes through Litigation, Mediation, and Arbitration¡± to deepen exchanges and cooperation with international commercial arbitration institutions and, by improving the mechanisms linking litigation with arbitration and litigation with mediation, has built an efficient path for dispute resolution. Over the past 5 years, 7,464 cases were concluded through mediation, withdrawal of claims, applications for judicial confirmation, and other means, with the mediation and withdrawal rate reaching 53.5%; among these, cases involving applications for judicial confirmation of mediation agreements saw a particularly significant increase.

To address practical difficulties in foreign-related litigation such as the ascertainment of foreign law, cross-border service of process, and document translation, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court has also continued to reduce litigation costs for overseas parties and improve the convenience of cross-border judicial services through mechanisms including multi-channel ascertainment of foreign law, case-specific litigation guidance, and review and confirmation of general authorizations.

High-Quality Commercial Adjudication Safeguards the Development of Emerging Pillar Industries

The white paper shows that from July 2021 to June 2026, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court accepted a total of 1,819 commercial disputes involving the six major emerging pillar industries, with a total amount in dispute reaching RMB 6.477 billion.

In terms of the distribution among the six industries, the fashion consumer goods industry, the new-generation electronic information industry, the high-end equipment industry, the intelligent connected new-energy vehicle industry, the new-energy and green low-carbon industry, and the advanced materials industry accounted for 29.7%, 28.4%, 18.3%, 15.3%, 6.7%, and 1.6%, respectively.

In terms of the amount in dispute, cases involving less than RMB 500,000 accounted for the largest share at 46.9%, while cases involving more than RMB 10 million accounted for 7.1%.

In terms of dispute type, contract disputes such as disputes over sales contracts and service contracts were the most numerous, while disputes over partnership contracts, equity transfers, and damage to company interests were also relatively common.

In response to the judicial needs arising in the development of emerging pillar industries, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court has fully performed the functions of commercial adjudication and continuously improved the precision and effectiveness of judicial services and safeguards.

First, it serves the building of a unified national market and removes market barriers. It adheres to equal protection for all types of business entities, strengthens cross-regional and cross-industry similar-case retrieval mechanisms and promotes the consistent application of adjudication rules, and focuses on refining adjudication rules for new types of disputes.

Second, it strengthens the protection of enterprise property rights and stimulates innovation vitality. Focusing on key issues in corporate operation and governance, it strengthens the review of legal facts and the identification of genuine legal relationships, protects the lawful rights and interests of enterprises and investors in accordance with the law, and promotes standardized governance and sound operation of enterprises.

Third, it accurately clears bottlenecks in registration and ensures accountability for commitments related to market exit. In response to issues such as the exit of enterprises and related personnel, changes in registration, and simplified deregistration, it strengthens substantive review, ensures legal accountability in accordance with the law for acts such as false commitments, and promotes the orderly operation of exit mechanisms.

Fourth, it improves diversified dispute resolution mechanisms and builds a judicial service brand. It has continued to improve the case classification and mediation mechanism and, in cooperation with the Pudong New Area Federation of Industry and Commerce, established the ¡°Legal and Business Protection for Enterprises¡± circuit trial station for commercial disputes, further extending judicial services to industrial clusters and the front lines of enterprise operations.

Typical Cases Provide Judicial Guidance

At the press conference, 6 typical foreign-related commercial cases and 10 typical cases on commercial adjudication involving emerging pillar industries were also reported. These cases not only focused on cutting-edge issues in foreign-related adjudication such as the application of international commercial rules and the order of cross-border transactions, but also responded to new needs arising in the development of emerging industries, including corporate governance, platform operation, and industrial chain collaboration, thereby providing judicial guidance for stabilizing expectations and regulating market conduct for Chinese and foreign business entities.

In a dispute over an international sales contract for goods, a Shanghai company failed to pay contractual payments as agreed to a German company, and the German company sued for payment of the contract price and overdue interest, while also claiming the application of the interest provisions of the German Civil Code. With reference to Opinion No. 14 of the CISG Advisory Council on the CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods)‌, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court applied the law of the creditor¡¯s place of business under the principle of ¡°full compensation¡± and held that the interest should be calculated in accordance with the interest rate under German law. The case was selected for inclusion in the Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (CLOUT) system, establishing a Chinese model for the uniform application of the Convention in global judicial practice.

In a dispute over a sales contract for lithography machines, the buyer and seller became embroiled in a dispute over the performance of the contract for four lithography machines. Given the highly specialized nature of the installation and commissioning of lithography machines and the fact that they are affected by multiple factors such as equipment performance and plant conditions, the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court clarified the responsibilities item by item, fully considered the company¡¯s subsequent business plans, and broke the deadlock through a ¡°partial termination + continued performance¡± approach, ultimately facilitating mediation between the parties while preserving their cooperative relationship, thus providing a useful reference for handling disputes over transactions involving large-scale specialized equipment in industries such as new-generation electronic information and high-end equipment.

At the press conference, attending journalists also raised on-site questions about such issues as how the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court helps build a preferred venue for international commercial dispute resolution, the operation of the one-stop mechanism for resolving foreign-related commercial disputes, the reasons behind the high incidence of disputes in related industries, and the next steps in serving and safeguarding the development of emerging pillar industries, and the relevant officials responded to them one by one.

Commentary from a People¡¯s Representative

Jia Zhuomin, deputy to the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Congress and Deputy Director of the Shanghai Pudong New Area Investment Promotion Service Center

In the opening year of the ¡°15th Five-Year Plan¡±, the white papers and typical cases on foreign-related commercial adjudication and commercial adjudication involving emerging pillar industries released by the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Court have injected commercial judicial certainty into Pudong¡¯s efforts to concentrate on developing a modern industrial system, building ten hard-core industries, and advancing the development of the core area of the ¡°Five Centers¡±. Against the backdrop of increasingly complex structures in international commercial trade transactions and increasingly diversified market risks, these achievements provide forward-looking and practical references for market entities in preventing and controlling risks and reducing transaction uncertainty. Relying on the centralized handling of cases in the Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Lin-gang Special Area, as well as the coordination mechanism between litigation and arbitration, this internationalized judicial supply has provided strong judicial impetus for Pudong to build itself into a global hub for resource allocation and improve its internationalized business environment.

Huang Yingjian, deputy to the Pudong New Area People¡¯s Congress and General Manager of the Post-Investment Management Department of Shanghai Pudong Innovation Investment Development (Group) Co., Ltd.

The white paper on foreign-related commercial adjudication released at this event closely follows the requirements for institutional opening up in the Leading Area and systematically sorts out and presents innovative measures such as foreign-related adjudication, the building of arbitration-friendly mechanisms, and the upgrading of the one-stop platform for resolving disputes through litigation, arbitration, and mediation through cases and data. It is both grounded in the implementation and application of Pudong regulations and benchmarked against internationally accepted rules for commercial dispute resolution, reflecting a strong awareness of pioneering trial implementation. It is hoped that the People¡¯s Court will continue to give full play to its exemplary judicial role, continue to produce replicable judicial experience, and contribute judicial strength to Pudong¡¯s efforts to build a preferred venue for international commercial dispute resolution.