The 2016 Annual Conference of the Commercial Law Institute of China Law Society was held in Beijing from May 7 to 8, 2016. Themed by "The Internationalization of Commercial Law and China's Experience", the conference was organized by School of Law at UIBE. More than 440 members and representatives from teaching and scientific institutes, state organs and practical departments attended the conference. No less than 140 papers were submitted, emphasizing academic topics including the independency of civil law compiling and commercial legislation, the specific legal construction of departmental commercial law, internationalized commercial law and financial law.

Zhang Wenxian, the Vice-President of China Law Society, Wang Ling, the Party-Secretary of UIBE, Jiang Ping, a professor from China University of Political Science and Law, Jiang Jianchu, Deputy Procurator-General of Supreme People's Procuratorate, Du Wanhua, the full-time member of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court, Zhao Xudong, the standing Vice-President of Commercial Law Institute of China Law Society, Shi Jingxia, the Dean of School of Law, UIBE, Zhu Ciyun, the Vice-President and Secretary-General of Commercial Law Institute of China Law Society, among others, attended the opening ceremony.

On behalf of the organizer, Wang Ling, the Party-Secretary of UIBE, and Shi Jingxia, the Dean of School of Law, delivered speeches in the ceremony, chaired by Zhu Ciyun; Zhang Wenxian, Du Wanhua, Jiang Ping and Zhao Xudong made speeches. As a representative from China Law Society, Zhang spoke highly of the achievements of the Commercial Law Institute in his speech, and proposed the following steps for the Institute in combination with the 13th Five-Year Plan. Firstly, further strengthen the building for all aspects of the Institute; Secondly, boost the theoretical innovation and disciplinary development of commercial law; Thirdly, promote the combination of theory and practice, oriented by development. He pointed out, civil law and commercial law both play significant roles in leading and safeguarding the development of market economy. The formulation of the General Rules of Civil Law is closely related to that of the General Principles of Commercial Law. The field of commercial law shall pay high attention to and follow up the formulation of the draft and the legislative process for the General Rules of Civil Law, and engage in the legislation of the Civil Code.

In his speech, Du Wanhua introduced three issues in the commercial trial practice, that is, rights protection of financial consumers, factoring contract and bankruptcy trial, on which Du hoped specialists and scholars could do more research to provide intelligence support to trial practice. Jiang Ping spoke highly of the spirit of solidarity at the Commercial Law Institute, and stated research on the commercial law shall satisfy the requirements of a market economy and social practice in a timely manner, so as to live up to the expectations of commercial law scholars and staff. On behalf of the Commercial Law Institute, Zhao Xudong made a speech and reviewed the development and great events of the Institute during the 15 years since its establishment, especially the achievements made under the great leadership of Wang Baoshu, the President of the Institute. Zhao also elaborated the recent priorities and results in work, and made an introduction and description of the main items at the conference.

During the conference, the general election of the 4th Council of the Commercial Law Institute of China Law Society was held, the third revised draft for the articles of association of the Institute was approved, and a new council and standing council were elected. After a vote Zhao Xudong was elected the President of the Institute and Zhu Ciyun the standing Vice-President.

Fruitful research achievements have been made at the conference through the discussion centering on four topics including the independence of civil law compiling and commercial legislation, the specific legal construction of Corporation Law and Enterprise Law, new issues of commercial law under the internationalization and financial law. On the morning of May 8, the closing ceremony was held, in which "Best Papers of Young People" were awarded and 12 people including Wu Feifei won the first, second and third prizes. On behalf of the new Council of the Commercial Law Institute, Zhao delivered a speech. In his speech, he proposed the expectations and requirements for the development of civil legislation, especially the General Principles of Commercial Law, and pointed out the directions and paths for the disciplinary development of commercial law.