Dongguan accelerates building of advanced foreign-related legal service system

Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in South China's Guangdong province, has been transitioning into an innovation center by expediting the building of a comprehensive foreign-related legal system integrating platform construction, multi-party collaboration, and talent cultivation.

Integrated development of service platforms

Dongguan has set a pioneering example by establishing a foreign-related legal service point within the city's immigration service center. Every Tuesday and Wednesday, experienced foreign-related lawyers and notaries are stationed to offer one-stop legal services for high-demand matters such as kinship notarization and entry-exit records. This service point integrates online channels of multiple legal service institutions, making legal services more accessible through mobile phones.

The city is committed to continually improving the convenience and efficiency of foreign-related legal services by building diverse foreign-related legal service platforms and promoting their integrated development.

In July 2024, the First People's Court of Dongguan and the Dongguan Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment jointly launched a legal service station for foreign enterprises — an innovative integration of industry associations with foreign-related judicial services.

By this July, the station had organized 10 legal risk assessments and legal education lectures for over 200 foreign enterprises, while offering on-site legal consultations in 14 enterprises. This initiative has transformed Dongguan's foreign-related legal services from reactive to proactive. Currently, the city has achieved a full coverage of legal service stations for foreign enterprises in all 32 towns and urban neighborhoods, serving more than 2,300 enterprises.

Complementing this, the Dongguan Law Society guided the establishment of a comprehensive foreign-related legal consultation service station, further broadening channels for foreign-related legal consultation within the city. The center, starting operation on June 1, brings together 60 experts proficient in foreign-related legal practice, and designates every Friday as a dedicated consultation day.

In addition, the Dongguan Arbitration Commission (DGAC) has innovatively combined traditional incense culture with commercial dispute resolution through its "arbitration + mediation" model. Since its operation in 2021, the DGAC has handled international commercial arbitration cases involving a total value of over 6.2 billion yuan ($870 million), with 99 percent of cases processed online.

Synergy in multi-party collaboration

The justice bureau of Dongguan, together with the city's commerce bureau, assembled a 60-member lawyer team dedicated to foreign-related legal services, and established a working group comprising various departments, towns, associations, and enterprises via WeChat, ensuring the high efficiency of legal services. The team offers targeted legal services tailored to project-specific needs, providing the best solutions. Moreover, the commerce bureau organized 29 online and 10 offline thematic foreign-related lectures for over 2,000 participants.

In addition, the Dongguan Law Society established the Dongguan Foreign-related Legal Research Association, inviting 13 renowned institutions, including the China Legal Service (Hong Kong) Limited, as its advisory agencies, along with 17 experts and scholars as advisers.

Dongguan has been expanding the reach of legal services to grassroots levels by integrating legal resources, including notarization, arbitration, and border inspection, into the legal service platform for overseas Chinese, creating neighborhood service networks. The DGAC has set up a special window for filing and handling arbitration cases involving parties from China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and foreign countries, facilitating online acceptance and comprehensive tracking of cross-border commercial cases.　　

To deepen exchanges among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the Dongguan Intermediate People's Court and the Dongguan Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Bureau jointly organized a court tour for 55 students from these regions, enabling them to experience the mainland's rule of law environment through engaging in mock trials. The Dongyi Commercial Mediation Center appointed 124 mediators, including 11 from Hong Kong and Macao, with eight selected for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Mediator Panel in 2024.

Steady growth of legal professionals

Dongguan is steadfastly enhancing the professionalism and internationalization of its foreign-related lawyers through initiatives such as targeted training sessions launched by the Dongguan Lawyers Association.

Moreover, the city's justice bureau has collaborated with the Dongguan City University to jointly establish an innovative class for the cultivation of foreign-related legal professionals, and partnered with other universities to promote the establishment of legal education and practical training bases.

The city has made notable progress in promoting the diversified development of foreign-related legal professionals. So far, Dongguan has 6,132 practicing lawyers, including 13 from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, and 16 from the GBA. Meanwhile, the city boasts three notary offices with 43 notaries qualified for handling foreign-related services. In the first half of this year, they completed the handling of 6,417 foreign-related notarial documents sent to 114 countries and regions.

The DGAC has recruited 673 domestic and international arbitrators (including 30 from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), with over 30 percent of them capable of conducting hearings in foreign languages. The Dongguan Commercial Mediation Center has 177 registered mediators, about 30 of whom are experienced in foreign-related cases, and they have resolved 230 foreign-related disputes.

Dongguan has attached great importance to fostering cross-disciplinary integration of foreign-related legal professionals. The city's justice bureau and commerce bureau hosted specialized events on foreign-related legal services, while the Lawyers Association and the Federation of Industry and Commerce produced videos for legal publicity. Collaboration between the DGAC and universities in Macao as well as the Dongguan Intermediate People's Court and Jinan University has promoted the establishment of training bases for talent cultivation. Dongguan has established a talent pool of over 300 foreign-related legal professionals through its integrated talent development mechanism.

A high-level foreign-related legal system serves as the cornerstone for Dongguan's high-level opening-up. Moving forward, the city will continue advancing its foreign-related legal system and capacity, fostering the building of a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized, and strengthening its core competitiveness based on the development of its legal system.