Globalization, Legal Culture and the Handling of Sino-Australian Commercial Disputes

China’s ‘Go Global’ strategy has encouraged Chinese companies to seek to enhance China’s resource security through acquisitions in foreign markets. Under the influence of this policy, Chinese companies have greatly increased outbound investment in recent years, and one consequence of this increased activity has been the generation of a range of commercial disputes. The choice of different methods of dispute settlement is in part influenced by the national legal cultures that have shaped the mind-sets of parties to these commercial disputes. Recent Chinese investment abroad has grown significantly and increasing economic engagement between China and other countries will inevitably involve some degree of conflict as different legal cultures interact. In understanding points of tension in the Sino-Australian investment relationship questions are raised concerning legal pluralism and the impact of legal culture on Chinese controlled companies operating in Australia. This paper discusses approaches taken in a number of recent commercial disputes involving Chinese companies in Australia and the slow movement that these cases reveal towards a more globalized commercial law.