Herbert Smith Freehills has announced a partnership with the Faculty of Law of the University of New South Wales in Sydney to establish the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre. The centre will strengthen research and partnerships in international business and economic law relevant to China in the 21st century, and particularly to the Australia-China trading corridor.

Established in 2015, the Centre in Sydney is home to the world’s largest cohort of Chinese law scholars outside of China. The initiative boasts a core group of five Chinese international economic law scholars in the areas of corporate and competition law, trade law, investment law, and financial law. The five-year partnership will contribute to the continued growth of the centre through strategic hires, research programmes, publications, and ongoing joint education initiatives in Australia and China.

“As Australian business and society forms even closer bonds with China, initiatives such as the CIBEL Centre – which is at the forefront of research in this field – will become increasingly important to sustaining longterm and economically beneficial relationships between our two countries,” said Herbert Smith Freehills’ regional managing partner Andrew Pike.

The firm has more than 30 years’ experience in China through long-established offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

“China is one of Australia’s most important trading partners,” said Justin D’Agostino, the firm’s Asia managing partner and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing “As a firm we are committed to ensuring we are best placed to serve our clients’ interests in the corridor, whether they or their projects are based in Australia, China or elsewhere. Investment in initiatives such as the CIBEL Centre significantly enhances our ability to do so.”