On June 8, the Shaanxi Provincial High People's Court (SPHPC) publicly adjudicated a foreign-related commercial case, with legal clarification services provided by Xi'an Jiaotong University's (XJTC) Collaborative Innovation Centre for Silk Road Economic Belt Legal and Policy Studies (CIC-SREBLPS). This case is significant as it is the first instance in the Chinese judicial system where the laws of Tajikistan were applied to a foreign-related commercial dispute.

Dr. Igor Maier is interviewed.

The case centered on a dispute over a supervision contract between a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Shaanxi-based company operating in Tajikistan and a Chinese company. The subsidiary had signed a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement with the Tajikistan government and established the Tajikistan company for project construction and operation.

Tensions arose between the subsidiary and the supervisory company regarding supervision fees. The supervisory company claimed that the subsidiary should pay the fees in question and argued for joint liability with the parent company in Shaanxi as its sole shareholder. The first-instance judgment ruled in favor of the Shaanxi company, finding the evidence provided by the supervisory company insufficient. Both parties appealed to the SPHPC.

The SPHPC ruled that the laws of Tajikistan, the place of operation, should be applied to ascertain the liability of the Shaanxi company for the Tajikistan subsidiary's debts. With assistance from the CIC-SREBLPS, the SPHPC conducted research to clarify the relevant Tajikistan laws.

The CIC-SREBLPS carried out the required research and collated the details in order to provide timely and accurate legal clarification on the scenario. Experts, scholars, and practitioners from Tajikistan and other Russian-speaking countries were consulted. Assistant Professor Wang Chao'en and Dr. Igor Maier prepared the final report for legal guidance on the dispute, which received a commendation from the SPHPC.