The Arbitration Rules of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone were released in Shanghai early April.

The Rules improve the provisional measures, add the system of urgent arbitration tribunal, lift the restriction that the parties may only select arbitrators from the given “list”, and establish the open list system of arbitrators. In addition, the Rules further improve the system of combination of arbitration and mediation by establishing a mediation procedure to be applied before the formation of an arbitration tribunal, and further reinforce the evidence rules during arbitration.

The Rules will come into effect on May 1 this year.