On the morning of May 15th, Mr. Zhang Sheng, Associate Professor of XJTU’s Law School, delivered an academic lecture titledDispute Resolution for the Belt and Road Initiative. Based on the Belt & Road Initiative, he introduced the concept of International Investment Arbitration and the International Commercial Courts, explaining alternative dispute resolution and analyzing China's proactive role.

Professor Zhang's lecture consisted of five parts. First, he introduced the overall routes of the “Belt and Road” and the distribution of countries along the routes with the B & R Initiative as its starting point. He also analyzed the energy investment risks of countries along the routes. Professor Zhang next introduced the status of International Investment Arbitration by covering bilateral investment treaties, international investment arbitration cases from 1987 to 2017, the number and proportion of dispute cases of both sides in disputes, China’s practice in investment dispute settlement, cases filed with foreign investors against China, deficiencies and reform of current dispute settlement mechanisms.

In the third part of his lecture, he elaborated on the background and characteristics of the International Commercial Courts and its construction based on current controversial social issues. Afterwards, Professor Zhang analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of alternative dispute settlement methods through the Singapore Mediation Convention. In the end, he presented China’s proactive role in building a comprehensive BRI dispute resolution mechanism, such as formulating the G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment Facilitation, conducting the China-EU BIT and China US BIT Negotiations, participating in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the Investment Arbitration Regulations of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, Chinese arbitrators’ contribution to international investment and coordination, etc., which demonstrates China’s responsible and positive role in resolving international disputes.

In his lecture, Professor Zhang also translated and explained certain challenging academic terms to students in both Chinese and English, helping them have a deeper understanding of the lecture.