A New Chinese Court in an Old American Building – Pic of the Week

A few months ago, I wrote a Global Legal Monitor article on a decision by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee to create the country’s first financial court in Shanghai, the Shanghai Financial Court. According to the decision, the new court is specialized in handling financial cases. It has the status of an intermediate court and takes civil and commercial financial cases and finance-related administrative cases that were previously under the jurisdiction of the intermediate courts in Shanghai.

During a recent visit to Shanghai, I walked by this impressive American-style building and found it was the new Shanghai Financial Court! It is on Fuzhou Road, only a couple of blocks from the Bund (Wai Tan), a waterfront neighborhood that used to be the trade and financial center in Shanghai.

According to the “heritage architecture” plaque mounted on the outside wall of the court, the building used to be an “American Club,” designed by “Ladislaus Hudec of Curry & Co.” and built in 1923-25. It is in “American Georgian style,” according to the plaque.

Check this map of Shanghai dated 1935, collected by the Boston Public Library, and see if you could find the American Club! (It is on “Foochow Road,” opposite of the “Municipal Building” in this map.)

The Shanghai Financial Court reportedly opened its doors on August 20, 2018, and heard its first case on October 18, 2018.