The Research Centre for Foreign Law Ascertainment of CUPL and the Beijing Financial Court jointly held an online seminar on the Beijing Financial Court's Extraterritorial Law Ascertainment Programme on the morning of 16 May, 2022.
The Chair of Council & Vice-President of the Court Xue Feng, Judge Liao Yu of its First Trial Court, Judge Li Nan of its Second Trial Court, Judge Guo Jie of its Executive Board, Judge Assistant Liao Qingshun of its Case Filing Division, Judge Assistant Yu Zhouqi of the First Trial Court, Judge Assistant Liu Jingyong of the Third Trial Court, Judge Assistant Ding Ruizhi of the Executive Board attended the seminar. Participants from CUPL side included Associate Dean of the School of Foreign Languages Tian Linan, Director of the Centre & professor at the College of Comparative Law Gao Xiang, Executive Director of the Centre and associate professor of the College Sun Haibo and Secretary of the Centre & Deputy Director of the College Administrative Office Li Li. The meeting was presided over by Xue Feng.
Xue Feng first made a brief introduction to the keynote of the conference. Founded at 2021, the Beijing Financial Court, which focuses on state financial management on a commercial basis, is the first court to be granted extraterritorial jurisdiction. The Court is faced with the arduous task of promoting the construction of international finance, so it has set up the panel of ascertainment of extraterritorial financial laws. The purpose of the seminar was to learn from and promote exchanges with the Centre regarding the ascertainment of extraterritorial laws.
Gao Xiang gave a brief introduction to the background and operation mode of the Centre. He said that the prerequisite for foreign law ascertainment is that the staff members shall be proficient in foreign languages while the faculty of the College of Comparative Law enjoys a leading advantage in languages all over the country. He mentioned that the reseracher pool of the Centre is not limited to the faculty of the College, it also recruited external experts who must have Juris Doctor degrees abroad to provide the courts at all levels in China with services.
Then, the participants of the two sides discussed in detail the ways of case ascertainment, the mechanism of operation of the Centre, the establishment of an extraterritorial law database, the process of issuing a legal opinion, the difference between the Centre's legal opinion and ordinary expert witnesses, the application of legal opinions and the comprehensiveness of law ascertainment, and exchange views.
At the end of the discussion, after in-depth exchanges, the two sides reached an agreement on the future work on the ascertainment of extraterritorial laws.
