Luoyang in Henan accelerates innovative development of foreign-related legal services

In recent years, the Justice Bureau of Luoyang, Central China's Henan province, has made proactive efforts to establish a foreign-related legal service system that supports the region's economic growth and opening-up, accelerating the development of the city's foreign-related legal services on the "fast track."

Dang Hui, director of the Justice Bureau of Luoyang, emphasized the bureau's dedication to leading in precise demand-supply matching, high-end talent support, and diversified innovative services, with the goal of positioning Luoyang as a hub for foreign-related legal services in Central China.

Aggregating advantageous resources

In 2024, the justice bureau established the first foreign-related commercial and legal service center within Henan province. The center provides specialized legal services including international and domestic civil and commercial mediation, foreign law ascertainment, research on institutional innovation of the China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and customized high-end foreign-related legal services.

Furthermore, the justice bureau has established a high-standard city-level foreign-related legal service cluster within the Luoyang Area of the China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone — the first of its kind within the province — offering one-stop legal services including commercial mediation and arbitration and foreign-related legal support. This cluster has attracted various legal service institutions, such as the Luoyang Arbitration Commission (also known as the Luoyang International Commercial Arbitration Court), the Luoyang Lawyers Association, law firms, and foreign-related notary offices.

To optimize the supporting policy framework for the city's foreign-related legal services, the Luoyang Municipal Government has issued the Measures for Accelerating the Development of Foreign-Related Legal Services, which have facilitated the establishment of a coordination mechanism among commerce, finance, and taxation departments, and promoted the healthy development of foreign-related legal services across the city.

Furthermore, the Measures for Promoting the Healthy Development of the Private Sector through High-Level Rule of Law were introduced to establish mechanisms for aligning demand and supply of foreign-related legal services and addressing the needs of private enterprises. This creates a closed-loop service cycle involving "enterprise requests, assignment by legal service centers, acceptance by legal service institutions, and government supervision."

Other regulations, including mediation rules and mediator management methods for the foreign-related commercial and legal service center, have been formulated, with 200 lawyer mediators appointed. The Justice Bureau of Luoyang has also signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Intermediate People's Court of Luoyang and four other courts to integrate commercial mediation with judicial confirmation.

Focusing on key areas

According to Dang, the Luoyang Lawyers Association and the Foreign-Related Commercial and Legal Service Center have signed strategic cooperation agreements with entities such as the Chengdu Lawyers Association, Northwest University of Political Science and Law, and the China-Central Asia Law Ascertainment and Research Center. Agreements focus on comprehensive and multi-level cooperation and exchanges in various areas, including foreign-related commercial mediation, foreign-related legal services, development of foreign-related lawyer teams, and foreign law ascertainment, aiming to advance the substantive operation of the law ascertainment center.

Many law firms in the city have formed dedicated teams for foreign-related legal services, providing high-quality support to enterprises in cross-border projects, trade, and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.

Moreover, the Justice Bureau of Luoyang has been advancing the high-level development of the Luoyang International Commercial Arbitration Court and established the Luoyang Arbitration Commission (International) Intellectual Property Arbitration Court to support the city's goal of becoming an IPR hub. By providing full-chain arbitration services covering "dispute prevention, mediation during disputes, and safeguards after disputes," it assists enterprises in expanding globally.

Cultivating high-caliber legal professionals

The Justice Bureau of Luoyang has enhanced international cooperation through ‌foreign-related notarization, strengthened the cultivation of foreign-related notary talents, and organized notaries to participate in professional training and qualification certification. Currently, the city has ‌10 notary institutions‌ and ‌39 notaries‌ qualified for foreign-related notary services, accounting for 24.4 percent and 11.1 percent of the provincial totals, respectively. Since 2024, they have handled ‌over 15,000‌ foreign-related notary cases.

As a pilot institution for the Overseas Remote Video Notarization Program launched by the Ministry of Justice, the ‌Heluo Notary Office‌ based in Luoyang has introduced policies and measures to support enterprises in going global, enabling integrated handling of ‌"foreign-related notarization + apostille certification"‌.

In terms of the cultivation of foreign-related lawyers, the justice bureau has organized advanced training sessions for foreign-related lawyer talents by inviting experts and scholars to deliver thematic lectures on topics such as international commercial arbitration, overseas trademarks and patents, and cross-border e-commerce. This initiative equips local enterprises with in-depth knowledge of foreign law and rights protection strategies during international expansion.

The justice bureau has collaborated with ‌Henan University of Science and Technology‌ to develop research institutes for international commercial arbitration and IPR-related arbitration‌, providing a practical training platform for foreign-related legal talents‌.

Furthermore, the Luoyang Arbitration Commission has compiled three comprehensive case collections in arbitration, diversified mediation, and judicial oversight and review, featuring 109 typical arbitration cases from recent years to serve as valuable references for efficient case handling. To date, the commission has appointed over ‌50 foreign-related arbitrators‌ and recruited ‌10 high-level legal professionals‌ to strengthen its arbitration talent pool.