Annotation

In today’s geopolitical environment, the question of the so-called “Eastward turn” is being raised more and more frequently. This trend has also affected the field of international commercial arbitration. It is no secret that Russian counterparties, when concluding arbitration agreements, instead of the previously popular Western-European arbitration centers, increasingly prefer, in addition to Russian arbitration institutions, Asian arbitration centers (China and the United Arab Emirates). At the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum — 2025 (LF-2025) during the session “International Commercial Arbitration and Arbitration Reform in China” the author presented the current situation in the field of international commercial arbitration in China. The panelists paid special attention to the ongoing arbitration reform and in particular, to the key issue of the significance of the institution of ad hoc arbitration in the draft arbitration law under consideration. This publication has been prepared taking into account the theses identified by the author at the LF-2025, as well as a number of others that were not included due to the timetable of the session. The article summarizes the current statistical data of the Western and Asian arbitration institutions concerning the most popular arbitration centers and indicating the popularity of international commercial arbitration.