From: Judiciary answers to 14 DifficultQuestions about Foreign-related Commercial Trials By Ningbo Intermediate People's Court, Zhejiang Province, PRC

Answer: According to the provisions of Article 10 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Application of Laws in Foreign-related Civil Relations, there are two kinds of responsibilities for the identification of foreign laws: the foreign laws applicable under the guidance of China's conflict forms shall be identified by the court hearing the case according to its authority; The foreign laws applicable according to the choice of the parties shall be provided by the parties. In practice, attention should be paid to distinguishing the two situations, and the responsibility of ascertaining foreign laws should not be allocated to the parties. For the foreign law that should be applied according to the guidelines of China's conflict norms, even if the parties also choose to apply it, the responsibility for ascertaining the foreign law still belongs to the court. Of course, the court may provide relevant assistance to the parties concerned in the process of ascertaining foreign laws in accordance with its authority.

According to the provisions of Article 17 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Application of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Foreign-related Civil Relations (I), if the court is still unable to obtain foreign laws through reasonable means such as the provision of the parties, the provision of effective international treaties, and the provision of Chinese and foreign legal experts, it can be determined that the foreign laws cannot be identified. This "reasonable way" does not mean that the court must exhaust all means. As long as the court has performed the prudent obligation of finding out and still fails to find out, it can be regarded as unable to find out. However, foreign arbitration laws and common written laws cannot be identified as undeterminable in principle. In order to find out foreign laws, the court may also use other means than the Internet and other legal provisions. If a foreign law is applied by the party concerned and should be provided by the party concerned, if it fails to provide it within a reasonable time limit specified by the court without justified reasons, it can be deemed that it cannot be ascertained. The "reasonable period" shall be determined by the court according to the circumstances of the case and the difficulty of ascertaining the extraterritorial law, and generally shall not exceed three months. In addition, whether the foreign law is identified by the court or provided by the parties, the opinions of the parties on the content, understanding and application of the foreign law must be heard. If the parties have no objection to the content, understanding and application of the foreign law, the court can confirm it; If the parties have objections, the court shall examine and determine them.