CHINA’S PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW: CONFLICT OF LAWS REGULATION

The Chinese science of private international law is relatively young and mainly oriented towards Western trends, including differentiation, materialisation, and dispositive regulation. This distinguishes it from the Chinese science of public international law. Many Chinese specialists have studied or taught at European universities, and their works, published in English, tend to be free of ideology and critical of legislative positions. Almost all of them have a legal practice and focus their academic research on judicial application rather than high theory. The 2010 Law on the Application of Law to Civil Relations with Foreign Elements symbolises a new stage in the development of private international law in the PRC: the system of conflict-of-law rules enshrined in it is sufficiently differentiated and includes alternative connections designed to ensure flexible regulation that takes into account the interests of the weaker party. However, the Law has several serious shortcomings: it does not specify the principles of close connection and characteristic performance; it does not define the criteria for applying alternative rules; and it contains several points of connection that require clarification. Consequently, it does not provide for predictable regulation and may prompt Chinese courts to apply domestic law. These shortcomings have been partially overcome through the interpretive work of the Supreme People’s Court of the PRC.