Objective & Advantages

Further to meeting the requirements under the agreement entered into between AALCO and the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China on the establishment of a regional centre for arbitration in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on 10 November 2021, below are some more unique advantages for parties choosing the Hong Kong regional arbitration centre:

1. one could expect to take full advantage of the centre’s “country neutral” role and have full comfort that the disputes resolution will be conducted without any country being able to, or being perceived able to, potentially assert local protectionism or undue pressure to any decision maker in the disputes resolution process. This is particularly relevant in investor-state disputes, where a government, a country-owned company or a “local champion” is a party to the dispute;
2. one could expect to take full advantage of Hong Kong’s strong Rule of Law, robust data privacy laws, and the International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) (AALCO Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre) Order gazetted by the Hong Kong Government on 17 June 2022 which states, amongst other things that “The Government of the HKSAR shall take steps to ensure that the premise of the Centre, its properties, assets, archives and all documents belonging to it, or otherwise held by it, shall be inviolable”;
3. one could expect to take advantage of the deep bench of professional mediators, arbitrators, lawyers and disputes resolvers in Hong Kong. There are strong fundamentals which led to Hong Kong being one of the most globally preferred seat for arbitration many years running. Hong Kong’s 15,000+ legal and disputes resolution professionals possess international perspectives and qualifications, and they are also experienced and familiar with many culture, laws in 35+ jurisdictions, many have lived and grew up overseas and speak many languages. Hong Kong as a regional legal hub is already home to many international arbitration and dispute resolution centres;
4. one could expect to take advantage of the prime office and conference room facilities at the new AALCO regional arbitration centre that is located in prime location of the CBD in Hong Kong, but you will of course be welcomed to use the centre’s robust state of the art secure online disputes resolution platform;
5. one could expect to take advantage of the strong and rich network of potential customers, investors, financiers, suppliers and regional headquarters of many businesses, international organizations, reputable common law legal system, free flow of information and capital. Hong Kong is no doubt a cosmopolitan and vibrant place to work, live and play;
6. one could expect to take advantage of the many benefits of the New York Convention which allow Hong Kong seated arbitration awards (including those remotely using the centre’s video conference and document management system) to be readily enforceable in around 169 countries in the world;
7. one could expect to take advantage of the special ability under Article 2 of the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to start an arbitration with the centre and then be able to immediately thereafter go straight to courts in Mainland China to seek interim relief measures to preserve evidence and assets rather than having to wait for the entire arbitration to be completed first;
8. one could expect to take full advantage of the recently updated Hong Kong arbitration laws which clarified that Intellectual Property disputes can be and will be resolved via arbitration;
9. one could expect to take advantage of the upcoming introduction through implementation of the additional option of Outcome Related Fee Structure Agreements (ORFSA) arrangement in Hong Kong giving parties to a dispute more cost efficient options such as conditional fee arrangements (CFAs), damages based agreements (DBAs) and hybrid damages based agreements (Hybrid DBAs) to engage lawyers in an arbitration;
10. one could expect to leverage upon and access amazing LegalTech developments in Hong Kong, may be to try out the AI translation technology, application of blockchain, big data, cloud, e-signing and other new technology.

To sum up, here, at AALCO Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre, a “country-neutral” regional arbitration centre of an intergovernmental agency of 47 member countries located right here in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, where we are protected by robust laws, secure networks, and supported by the latest innovation in the Greater Bay Area and beyond, we are well placed to facilitate deals and resolve disputes in both traditional and “new” settings including G2B, B2B, B2C, O2O, e-Commerce, NFT projects, ArtTech, PropTech, ESG, Meta-verse, Open-verse and many other amazing new developments and opportunities.  Whether you are interested to do business in the AALCO member states or beyond in other countries active in the Belt and Road Initiative or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), you are always welcomed to visit us, work with us, and leverage on our network, professionals, knowledge and technology as you take advantage of many new and great regulatory and technological developments, and use LawTech in doing deals and pre-empting, preventing and resolving international commercial disputes.