TITLE:
Clarifying the Murky Waters—On Legal Liabilities Might Be Assumed by Civil and Commercial Arbitrators in China
AUTHORS:
Du Wen
KEYWORDS:
Civil and Commercial Arbitrators of China, Assumption of Legal Liabilities, Analyses of Questions
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.9,
September
24,
2026
ABSTRACT: The New Arbitration Law has come into effect on this March 1. In addition to the existing institutional arbitrators, the law has established ad hoc arbitrators. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically answer the triple questions of whether these two types of civil and commercial arbitrators are required to bear the administrative, civil, and criminal responsibilities stipulated by Chinese laws. Upon investigation, the conclusions of this article are mainly as follows: First, in China, identified as members of other personnels who perform public duties in accordance with the law, civil and commercial arbitrators who have committed illegal acts in arbitral proceedings shall bear corresponding administrative sanctions (Xing Zheng Chu Fen), but not administrative penalties (Xing Zheng Chu Fa). Second, for civil and commercial arbitrators who violated professional code of conducts and moral requirements, relevant arbitration institutions or arbitral associations may impose appropriate professional disciplinary sanctions on them. Third, for civil and commercial arbitrators with illicit acts, they should assume corresponding breach of contract liability in the form of “compensating for actual losses” when their intention or gross negligence are lawfully vindicated. Meanwhile, the specific ways of ad hoc arbitrators and institutional arbitrators assuming their respective civil liability are different. Fourth, the crime of arbitrating by bending the law in China may be applied to both institutional arbitrators with illegal acts and law-breaking ad hoc arbitrators. In addition, civil and commercial arbitrators suspected of violating the law may also be held accountable for other crimes stipulated in the Criminal Code of China. Fifth, regardless of whether overseas arbitration institutions are registered in China’s free trade zones or free trade ports or not, as long as they conduct civil and commercial arbitration on the soil of the Chinese Mainland, the illicit acts of their arbitrators will still fall within the supervision scope of Chinese supervisory organs and judiciary. Sixth, in China, even though the crime of arbitrating by bending the law may be applied to both institution arbitrators with illegal acts and the law-breaking ad hoc arbitrators, there are related technical ambiguities that urgently need to be addressed and clarified. Seventh, the crime of arbitrating by bending the law in China can also be applied to severely misbehaved arbitrators in the arbitration for labor disputes, the arbitration for human resource disputes, the arbitration for rural land contracting disputes, as well as the arbitration for sports disputes. Eighth, due to the limited members and mutual familiarity in the civil and commercial arbitration circle as well as the closely-linked domestic and international trade circle, once an arbitrator made a bad arbitration award by deliberately running against the laws or professional disciplines, their “word-of-mouth reputation” in these two said “circles” will be tarnished for sure. After that, this arbitrator’s chances of arbitrating any other dispute will be greatly reduced, and even falls into an awkward plight with no one showing interest in him or her. In the author’s opinion, this predicament should be the most effective punishment for arbitrators who knowingly violated laws and regulations.