Foreign and Military Affairs

Chinese, African jurists discuss co-op in legal forum

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-21 15:33

CAIRO: Chinese and African jurists and lawyers gathered in a forum here Sunday to exchange views on legal affairs and explore approaches to enhance legal cooperation with the expectation to make it a long-acting platform serving the development of China-Africa relations.

Nearly 100 jurists and lawyers from China and more than 20 African countries participated in the first Forum on China-Africa Cooperation -- Legal Forum, which is a sub-forum of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and was initiated by the China Law Society.

Given the theme of the forum "Strengthening China-Africa Legal Exchange and Promoting All-round Development of China-Africa Relationship", participants in the two-day forum held discussions with various topics including the important role of law in China- Africa Cooperation, the impact of legal systems on China-Africa trade and investment relations, and the dispute resolution mechanisms between China and African countries.

A Chinese delegation led by Liu Yang, executive vice-president of China Law Society, attended the forum. "Today we witnessed the birth of this forum. The cooperation in the field of legal affairs is indispensable for the overall development of China-Africa relations. And our purpose for creating this forum is to set up a long-acting platform for the Chinese and African legal circles to enhance cooperation on the basis of better understanding so as to provide more support for economic and trade development between China and Africa," Liu told Xinhua.

Director of Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration Nabil Elaraby, as the chief organizer of the legal forum, told Xinhua, "I think the forum is important. It just started, and everyone hope it will continue on the exchange of views on legal matters. People who are attending it get better understandings of certain matters from legal point of view of the other side and this will have very positive effect on their thinking about the future relations."

"Various forms of economic relations between African countries and China have been improving and gaining momentum during the past years. As a result of this, when you have two countries involved in trade, investment or any kind of economic cooperation, you need a solid and credible legal framework to ensure there is no dispute, and each side is entitled to know if they disagree a point, how it is to be solved. This is our purpose," Elaraby added.

Liu made three proposals in her opening speech, including building the legal forum into a long-acting platform, implementing the training projects for African young legal talents, seeking cooperation with other international legal organizations to expand the forum's influence.

The fourth ministerial conference of the FOCAC was held last month in Egypt's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh, and an action plan was adopted during the conference defining the further cooperation between China and Africa in every field in the coming three years. The legal forum is the first sub-forum that has been held according to the action plan.

"We have participants from more than 20 African countries here, which means our proposal was echoed actively by these countries and they have shown deep interests. This is a fairly good start," Liu said.