Reed Smith’s international arbitration practice is premised on three strands: specific industries such as energy and natural resources, certain “specialisms” (specific types of arbitration regardless of industry, such as investor-state arbitration), and specific geographic regions in which our lawyers are especially well suited to advise our clients.

There is no better example of these three strands coming together than China’s transformational Belt and Road Initiative, which is the focus of this newsletter.

Since its inception in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has brought significant and unprecedented economic opportunities across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. However, due to the scale and complexity of projects associated with the Initiative, such opportunities carry with them the inevitable risk of disputes.

These disputes touch upon a wide range of industries (energy, natural resources, infrastructure, agriculture, etc.), involve a broad array of actors, and have resulted in conflicts of very different natures (international commercial disputes, construction disputes, investor-state disputes, state-to-state disputes, etc.).

Efficient handling of these disputes, which have only been exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, is therefore vital, with dispute resolution (and in particular international arbitration) playing a key role.

This latest issue looks at how some of these disputes have been handled, examines the importance of certain jurisdictions in dealing with them, and looks to the future of the Initiative.

We hope you enjoy reading this edition and as always, we welcome your feedback.

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