Guangdong advances foreign-related rule of law to support enterprises' overseas expansion

South China's Guangdong province, a pivotal starting point and central hub of the Maritime Silk Road, has emerged as the country's leading province in trade volume and two-way investment with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The province supported enterprises' overseas expansion through multi-faceted efforts, including optimizing legal service supply, promoting international legal exchanges and cooperation, improving foreign-related legal systems and strengthening the cultivation of legal talents.

Achievements in legal service aggregation

Guangdong has established the Guangzhou Central Legal Services District and a Belt and Road legal service research center specializing in study of laws, regulations and policies of BRI countries and regions.

In recent years, the province has actively advanced its foreign-related legal services for the Belt and Road cooperation. It has hosted two sessions of the China (Guangdong) Belt and Road Legal Service Forum, dispatched lawyers to participate in international exchanges such as the ASEAN Law Conference, and established and operationalized the Belt and Road Lawyers Alliance Guangzhou Office.

The Guangzhou Arbitration Commission has pioneered the establishment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Arbitration Alliance, jointly hosted the BRICS Forum for International Arbitration Cooperation with the Huizhou Arbitration Commission, and released the Belt and Road Arbitration Model Rules.

In the province's Shenzhen, the Qianhai Belt and Road Legal Services Federation was established, and the Shenzhen International Arbitration Court signed a cooperation agreement with the Russian Arbitration Center.

Effective alignment of legal service supply and demand

As the new energy vehicle industry chain expands into international markets, enterprises face multiple challenges, including regulatory certification and intellectual property protection.

Shan Tao, head of the International Trade Committee of the Guangdong Lawyers Association, noted that with the increasing severity of automotive data security risks-such as hacker attacks, illegal facial data collection, and sensitive data leaks resulting in civil and administrative penalties-many countries have intensified data protection and legislation on privacy, leading to stricter international regulation of cross-border data. To comply with the diverse legal requirements of different countries, personalized adjustments or modifications are applied to standard models to reduce the risk of legal violations, he said.

The province has also achieved major breakthroughs in opening up legal services to Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions through a pilot program allowing their lawyers to practice in mainland cities within the GBA. This initiative provides a new platform for Hong Kong and Macao lawyers to practice in the mainland and effectively promotes their integration into the country's overall development.

The rapid growth of the GBA lawyers has significantly expanded Guangdong's foreign-related legal talent pool, enhancing the professional capabilities and international competitiveness of legal services in the region. In some of the law firms of the province, GBA lawyers now account for more than half of the foreign-related legal practitioners, emerging as a vital force in handling foreign-related legal affairs and contributing to the building of an influential brand for GBA's legal services.

As of the end of December in 2024, 533 lawyers from Hong Kong and Macao have obtained practicing certificates for the GBA. Among them, 448 from Hong Kong and 85 from Macao, and distributed across more than 160 law firms, achieving full coverage in all nine mainland cities of the GBA.

Innovation in new forms of legal services

Addressing issues such as payment disputes, tax remedial payments, labor disputes, land transactions and customs clearance, new forms of legal services, such as company compliance, foreign law ascertainment and international commercial mediation, are emerging alongside traditional lawyer, notary and arbitration services.

Amid the wave of enterprises going global, a number of companies providing one-stop compliance cloud services for Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers are thriving.　　

"Foreign law ascertainment is an emerging legal service category," said Han Ting, head of the Benchmark Chambers International & Benchmark International Mediation Center, adding that the ability to accurately apply laws, ascertain and clarify foreign laws, and apply international treaties and practices significantly influences the confidence and evaluation of relevant initiative participants in China's investment, trade and judicial environments.

Currently, the Guangzhou International Commercial Mediation Center has 502 registered mediators, including 27 senior commercial mediators from Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries, with about 140 mediators capable of handling foreign-related cases in languages such as Chinese, English, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese.

In addition, arbitration institutions within the province have actively recruited over 1,000 foreign arbitrators who meet the required conditions from major BRI countries.