On June 19th, Adrian Hughes, Matthew Townsend, Dr. Michelle Chen and Jack Yu were invited to speak at the LSE public lecture and panel discussion organized by the Confucius Institute for Business London. They spoke to the topic "A Chinese Century? China's future impact on global law and business" and the forum was presided by Nick Byrne, the Director of the Confucius Language Centre at LSE.

Adrian Hughes QC, the Co-Chairman of China Law Council opened the debate and said that China's involvement in international arbitration had been increasing. Then Matthew Townsend, an expert in international arbitration from Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., explained how to resolve China-related disputes outside of the PRC, i.e. via International Arbitration Centres in Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe etc. Speaking on disputes, the third speaker, Dr. Michelle Chen (Bristows) drew upon her educational and work experience in both China and the UK, and discussed how to avoid disputes from the outset. Finally, Jack Yu, the Managing Director of Yingke Law Firm spoke. Instead of giving another speech, he raised the question of what the Chinese legal system would look like in the next decade. What role would Chinese law play in a system where English law currently dominates with regards to international contracts and also US law firms?

The forum ended successfully amidst applause from the audience.