Features of the system of appealing against Chinese People's courts rulings on refusal of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards

Introduction: the article deals with the issues of appealing against rulings of Chinese people 's courts on refusal of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Purpose: to systemize the existing problems of these appeals. The objectives of the article are as follows: to analyze the issues of appealing against rulings of Chinese people's courts on refusal of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, to reveal gaps in the PRC legislation in this sphere, to make a comparison with the relevant legislation of Russia, as well as to suggest the ways to fill the gaps and improve the legislation of the PRC. Methods: the study is based on general scientific methods (analysis, induction and deduction, and others) and a specific scientific method (legal comparative method). Conclusions and results: the right to appeal against court rulings is a crucial guarantee for protection of rights and interests of legal persons as well as individuals in order to fairly decide a controversy. The PRC legislation does not clearly regulate the procedure for recognition and enforcement offoreign arbitral awards in whole, as well as in part of issues related to appealing against decisions of the PRC People's Courts in respect to refusal of the abovementioned recognition and enforcement. The "preliminary report" system, introduced in the PRC in 1995, to some extent replaced the procedure of appealing against People's Court rulings on the said category of cases. However, this system has the following problems: 1. the trial of such cases passes through three instances, contradicting Chinese legislation, where only two instances are officially applied; 2. the principle of exclusive jurisdiction is violated; 3. the principle of court's independence is abused. In comparison with the PRC, the Russian legislation in this sphere got more specific development, in particular cassational procedure grants the right to appeal. Therefore, the "preliminary report" system is outdated and has a transitional character. Thus, in order to strengthen the position of arbitration as a way to settle disputes, it is necessary to prepare and conduct the relevant reform of the PRC's legislation.