Dentons lawyer successfully applied for recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in China

Recently, a team led by Dentons Shanghai senior partner Wu Ming represented a foreign client to apply for the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) before the Dalian Intermediate People's Court (DIPC) and obtained a great success. In August 2018, the DIPC ruled to recognize the validity of the international arbitral award and to enforce this award. It is understood that this matter marks the first recognition and enforcement of an award of the CAS in China.

The CAS is an international arbitration institution specializing in settling disputes related to sports. It was established in 1984 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. Currently, after reforms, the CAS has made itself completely independent of the IOC, both organizationally and financially, and has established authority in the international sports sector, with its independence and impartiality widely recognized. The arbitration procedures of the CAS can be divided into two types: one is ordinary procedure submitted by the parties based on the arbitration clauses, and the other is appeals procedure when one party upholds objections to a decision made by a particular sports league or association. The matter Mr. Wu advised on its award's recognition and enforcement followed the ordinary arbitration procedure.

For the nature of sports disputes, parties generally can initiatively implement CAS rulings and there are few cases where one party refused to carry out the decision and the other party had to appeal to the relevant national courts for recognition and enforcement. Therefore, there was no precedent of CAS rulings recognized and enforced in Chinese courts. The legal issues concerning the recognition and enforcement of CAS awards in China have not been confirmed in practice.

During the case handling process, Mr. Wu's team conducted an extensive research on laws related to international sports arbitration and its recognition and enforcement, and provided a rich theoretical basis for the court. Ultimately, the DIPC adopted the opinions proposed by this team, and concluded that: (1) international sports arbitration is governed by the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (also known as the "New York Convention"); (2) arbitral awards made by the CAS based on contractual relations and for contractual dispute resolution purposes are of a commercial nature, thus are included in the scope of the reservations China made when the country acceded to the New York Convention; (3) on the basis of the foregoing, unless the situations listed in the paragraph 1 and 2 of Article V of the New York Convention are found, the Chinese courts shall recognize and enforce the arbitral awards of the CAS; (4) the respondent shall not claim that the arbitration agreement is invalid on the grounds that "CAS has no jurisdiction over the arbitration", and even if the arbitration institution has jurisdictional defects, it does not constitute the circumstances in which the recognition and enforcement of the award may be refused under the New York Convention; (5) the jurisdiction of the CAS covers a wide range: the CAS can accept such a case, as long as it is related to sports and involves principle issue, monetary benefits or other interests, and the parties has signed a valid arbitration agreement; (6) as to whether an arbitration agreement is valid, such issue shall be determined according to the applicable law (Swiss Law in this case) the parties agreed to in the arbitration agreement instead of Chinese law; (7) the "appropriate notice" of the arbitral procedure shall comply with the provisions of the Code of Sports-related Arbitration of the CAS. According to the Code, the arbitral proceedings may be notified by courier and/or by facsimile and/or by electronic mail, as long as the receipt has been confirmed.

Since the DIPC has clearly confirmed the above seven legal issues, it can provide guidance for the recognition and enforcement of subsequent CAS rulings and other professional arbitration institutions' awards in China. To a certain extent, the Chinese court's support for the CAS award also reflects the Chinese government's determination to improve the soft power of China's athletics, and it will certainly promote the development of China's sports-related arbitration system and benefit Chinese sports' international competitiveness.

The legal team led by Mr. Wu, with assistance from associate Shen Junjie and paralegals Xu Xinhui, Hong Yiyun and Gong Ruiyang, took full advantage of their rich experience in both international arbitration and domestic litigation and provided highly efficient and excellent legal services for the client. They overcame barriers in language, culture, time zone and jurisdiction, and provided accurate and objective evidence materials and information to the DIPC. Both the client and the court spoke highly of this team.