February 26 saw the official establishment of the Pilot FTZ Court of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area People’s Court (hereinafter referred to as “the court”), which located in the Yangtze River New Financial Demonstration Area in the CBD of China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area. The establishment was a significant move by the People’s Court of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area to better serve the development of Jiangbei New Area and China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area, and propel implementation of strategies including the Belt and Road Initiative, the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Development and Yangtze River Economic Belt Development.

Jiangsu Commission Office of Public Sectors Reform endorsed the establishment of the court in January 2020 as part of the efforts to secure smooth construction of China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area. It was put in charge of handling the first-instance commercial matters, IPR, bankruptcy and financial cases within the remit of China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area administered by Jiangbei New Area People’s Court as well as other cases designated by higher courts. Jiangbei New Area People’s Court took the initiative to set up a pilot FTZ circuit court equipped with a professional judge team on July 1, 2020, laid down ten measures on safeguarding the construction of the Pilot FTZ, put in place platforms dedicated to solving commercial disputes with diverse solutions, and actively explored judicial steps to promote development of the Pilot FTZ such as the “civil + administrative” two-in-one model of financial trials and “civil + administrative + criminal” three-in-one model of IPR trials. From July to December last year, a total of 3,009 cases were received cumulatively, among which 989 were related with financial disputes, 685 IPR, 1,283 commercial ones, and 52 bankruptcy.

China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area was committed to improving the law-based governance and ensuring a level playing field governed by rules. With these efforts, China’s first law-based governance park and the provincial first Pilot FTZ international commercial mediation center settled here. Institutions including the IPR court, IPR arbitration court and legal rights protection assistance center were brought in here to strengthen IPR protection. A complete IPR protection chain thus took shape. Apart from that, the Area developed innovative approaches by putting into practice a new joint operation model featuring diversity and combination and integrating domestic and overseas law firms, realizing one-stop legal services across multiple judiciary fields. Many an outstanding law firm in China have so far set up Nanjing offices in the Area. Ching Cheng Attorneys at Law, the first law firm outside Chinese mainland in China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ, set up a representative office here in the Area, and together with China International IP and Foreign Legal Services Platform founded by a number of international renowned law firms such as Yamamoto of Japan and Akin Gump of the US, provided high-quality legal services for market entities.