Settling International Business Disputes with China: Then and Now
A Generation Later— Substantial Progress, but . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 R I. Mediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 R II. Arbitration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 R III. Adjudication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 R Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 R
Searching for China’s Lex Mercatoria through Commercial Dispute Resolution
Abstract This article aims to take stock of where we are, how we got here, and where we are heading with regard to lex mercatoria in Chinese commercial dispute resolution proceedings. Based on qualitative evidence and supplemented by quantitative data, we found that lex mercatoria is hardly used in China, both in the adjudicative and arbitrative decision-making process. We examine multiple potential explanations and argue that state-embedded adjudicative structures as well as Chinese cultural inclinations and philosophic learnings limit the application of lex mercatoria in Chinese dispute resolution settings. We do acknowledge that the characteristics of lex mercatoria itself prevent or discourage its application. However, we conjecture that philosophical, political, and socio-economic ideology and movement shape disputing parties’ preferences. In the past decade, China’s rising new economic organizations such as Free Trade Zones and Belt and Road Initiative influenced the development of new commercial customs and norms, offering a fertile ground for the emergence of a lex mercatoria with Chinese characteristics.
Comparative Industrial Sociology and the Convergence Hypothesis
Industrial sociology grew spectacularly after World War II, concentrating on three areas: workers' relations with each other, their managers, and their unions; the social organization of the factory; and the impact of technology on social systems extending from the factory to the society. Unable to sus­ tain leadership in all of these areas, industrial sociology shrivelled as other fields invaded its domains. Human relations became the ideological property of the business schools; labor economics maintained its grip on industrial relations; industry-community relations waned as interest in community power soared; industrial organizations were absorbed into the study of com­ plex organizations; occupational sociology maintained research impetus in labor force analysis; and the sociology of the economy dominated the study of industry's institutional relationships. Industrial sociology survived on remnants: worker-machine relationships (job satisfaction, alienation, un­ employment), organizational responses to technological changes. and a bit of working-class ethnology. Enduring interest in technology, however, en­ abled industrial sociology to take part in sociology's expanding interest in comparative studies.