A Study On The Rules Of Evidence In International Arbitration

Since the ancient times, the human society utilized various methods and ways toresolve disputes. Whether litigation or arbitration, the evidence plays vital role in theprocess of disputes resolving, it is crucial to how to restore “the fact which hashappened truly” as far as possible, and impels the neutral referees distinguishing theparties’ proposition and the issues, therefore all the proving activities must becompliant with certain rules, otherwise it will impact the correctness of the provingresults, then evidence rules have the necessity of existence. With the development ofeconomy and the emerge of the era of globalization, international commercialarbitration has become a important way to resolve various cross-border disputes, andthe rules of evidence in international commercial arbitration have different nature andcharacteristics with rules of evidence in litigation due to special characteristics of thearbitration, especially the concrete rules of evidence in it are worth a in-depth study.Currently, the rules of evidence in arbitration are fragmented, and scattered incountries’ arbitration law or the arbitration rules of different arbitration institutions. Interms of the international level, although there are a few related rules of evidence inarbitration which are formulated by International Bar Association, United NationsCommission on International Trade Law and other similar institutions, the rules arelack of systematicness in general. On the other hand, China’s foreign arbitration has a late start, the related rules of evidence are more simple and crude, meanwhile, it islack of systematicness and operability. Although domestic academia has a seriesstudies on the rules of evidence in international commercial arbitration, the forms arelimited in journal and dissertations, a few formations of research monographs whichjust focus on one of evidence rules in international commercial arbitration rules,therefore no monograph did any overall research on rules of evidence in internationalcommercial arbitration.This dissertation can be divided for5chapters.The first chapter is the outline of the rules of evidence in internationalcommercial arbitration, it is discoursed mainly from the concept, nature and valueorientation of the rules of evidence in international commercial arbitration, and hopeto handle the topic better from the origin of the system.The second chapter is an overall review of the current rules of evidence ininternational commercial arbitration, author utilizes the comparative method tocompare the evidence rules in arbitration and related litigation evidence in allarbitration steps, for highlighting the nature and value orientation which are kept bythe evidence rules in international commercial arbitration, to avoid the developmenttrend of litigation in arbitration.The author chooses three evidence rules and researched, which could reflectfeatures of international commercial arbitration. The “Discovery System” and“Privilege System” which are belong to Rules on the Taking of Evidence, are chosenin Chapter3, and analyzed in the example of IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence inInternational Arbitration (2010).Chapter4chooses the “Expert Witness System” which related to the formationof evidence. This system reflect the flexibility and inclusivity of evidence formationof the evidence rules in international commercial arbitration, and it has a certainreference for establishing this evidence system in China.Chapter5analyzes the domestic current rules of evidence in foreign commercialarbitration and provides suggestions for improvement, this dissertation’s discussions on rules of evidence in international commercial arbitration are built on the basis ofmany of the latest revised arbitration rules and international treaties. Therefore it has abetter timeliness and hope to provide better academic and practical guide for foreigncommercial arbitration in our country.