Guidelines give legal bite to FTZ cases

Judiciary inspection and execution in arbitration cases related to Shanghai's pilot free trade zone are now backed by legal teeth under guidelines released yesterday.

The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court released the guidelines setting out the rules and regulations over registering, hearing and execution of arbitration cases related to the FTZ.

The court's guidelines will now support rules released earlier by the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (Shanghai International Arbitration Center), industry watchers said.

Earlier last month, the commission released arbitration rules governing cases related to the city's pilot free trade zone, which officially became effective on Thursday.

"Since the arbitration organizations usually don't have compulsory execution power, preservation before arbitration and execution after arbitration often remain as the two biggest concerns for parties involved in business arbitration cases," Guo Junxiu, chief legal advisor of China Eastern Airlines, told Oriental Morning Post.

"Now with the new guidelines, parties will be more willing to resort to arbitration to solve their disputes."

Under the law, the people's court will back all temporary measures as well as judiciary inspection and execution of verdicts made by arbitration organizations.