This summer, the Hong Kong Department of Justice and the Supreme People ‘s Court (SPC) signed an ‘arrangement’ (a kind of internal treaty under Chinese constitutional law) providing for the reciprocal enforcement of certain judgments between Hong Kong and mainland China. Implementing materials have not been published at the time of writing, but it is expected that the arrangement will be brought into force some time in 2007.
Much has been written to the effect that it represents an important new mechanism for resolving disputes between Chinese and non-Chinese businesses. But is that really so? To answer that, it seems best to take a close look at the terms of the new arrangement and compare the overall package with the major offshore dispute resolution option already available, namely arbitration in a foreign country (in which case the New York Convention applies to enforcement in China) or arbitration in Hong Kong (to which an intra-China arrangement in terms equivalent to the New York Convention applies).
