Revision of China's Arbitration Law and Prospects for the Development of Arbitration Law

In the era of economic globalization, economic exchanges have become increasingly frequent, and various economic disputes have also increased accordingly. Arbitration, as an alternative dispute resolution plays a pivotal role in resolving economic disputes due to its characteristics of professionalism, flexibility, confidentiality, and efficiency. China attaches great importance to the legislation and revision of the Arbitration Law. Since the implementation of the Arbitration Law of the People's Republic of China in 1995, China's arbitration industry has made significant progress and undergone two amendments in 2009 and 2017. In 2021, the Ministry of Justice studied and drafted the “Arbitration Law (Revision) (Draft for Comments)”, which innovatively added provisions such as special arbitration, provisional measures, and reference to transactional customs, receiving great responses from the practical and academic circles. Subsequently, the “Arbitration Law (Revision Draft) (First Reading Draft)” and “Arbitration Law (Revision Draft) (Second Reading Draft)” were released in November 2024 and April 2025 respectively. Comparing the provisions, it can be found that there are no significant changes between the First Reading Draft and the Second Reading Draft, but there are many changes compared to the current “Arbitration Law” and the “Arbitration Law (Revision) (Draft for Comments)”. To facilitate understanding and interpretation, this article conducts a comparative analysis based on the current “Arbitration Law”, “Arbitration Law (Revision) (Draft for Comments)”, and “Arbitration Law (Revision Draft) (First Reading Draft)”, and discusses the development trend of China's arbitration after the revision of the “Arbitration Law”.