Lunchtime Seminar: Legal Aspects of China's Belt and Road Initiative

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is currently discussed controversially all around the world. While it has to be acknowledged that there are hardly any BRI norms and there is definitely no special BRI law, BRI is an extremely important topic last but not least from the legal point of view. This is because BRI represents China’s global ambitions and these ambitions could change the global legal order in due course.

This seminar first introduces general BRI aspects, such as its historical development, the motives behind BRI, BRI criticism as well as the various stakeholders’ responses to BRI. The main part of the seminar explores legal aspects of BRI with a special focus on topics of relevance for the legal profession. It considers amongst other things if it is possible or even necessary to develop particular legal BRI strategies. The seminar concludes with remarks of a more general nature regarding the future of BRI.

PROGRAMME

SPEAKERS

Professor Lutz-Christian Wolff

Professor Wolff specializes in International and Chinese Business Law, Comparative Law, and Private International Law. He has studied, worked and conducted research in a number of jurisdictions, including mainland China, Taiwan, and the USA. He is admitted to practice in England & Wales and in Germany. He is frequently invited to work with multi-national companies on investment projects in the Greater China region.

Professor Wolff was a founding member of the Faculty of Law, CUHK. He has served amongst others as Associate Dean (Faculty Development) (9/2008 to 7/2010), as Director of the Master of Laws Programmes in International Economic Law, Common Law and Chinese Business Law (9/2008 to 7/2011) and as Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) & Head Graduate Division of Law (8/2010 to 8/2014). Professor Wolff has been appointed as Dean of the CUHK Graduate School as of 1 September 2014.

Mr Kelvin Koh

Kelvin is a Partner at TSMP Law Corporation, and is one of the key lawyers spearheading the expansion of the firm’s business in China. He regularly advises and acts in disputes spanning various fields, including corporate and shareholder disputes, trust litigation, land disputes and regulatory disputes.

He has in-depth expertise in trust law, and is the Principal Examiner for Trusts and Equity with the Singapore Institute of Legal Education. Kelvin is also currently lecturing in SMU Law School on Shareholders Deals and Litigation. Asialaw Profiles described Kelvin as “a rising star lawyer with amazing English and Chinese proficiency to provide bilingual legal service”.
He has also been named by the Singapore Business Review as one of “Singapore’s most promising luminaries aged 40 and under” in 2017.

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