ST. PETERSBURG, May 18 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Alexander Konovalov, the Russia’s Justice Minister, has supported an idea to establish a Commercial Court for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), speaking at the “Rule of law concept in Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization” conference, RAPSI correspondent reports from the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (LF) venue on Wednesday.

Opening the Forum, the Minister stressed that in his opinion in 2016 the composition of participants of the LF in terms of their official positions and standing on the world legal market should bring on interesting discussions.

The conference on rule of law concept in SCO member states has confirmed the Minister’s view.

Liu Zhiqiang, a Vice Minister representing the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China, expressed his confidence that this meeting on SOC in St. Petersburg only confirmed the fact that the system of interaction between SOC Justice Ministers had already been formed.

According to the Vice Minister, the next necessary step should be the creation of a system of trust between states. “At the moment we are creating a so called ‘New Silk Road’. This is an economic belt encompassing SOC member countries. Without a system of credible security, implementation of this concept is impossible,” – Liu Zhiqiang has told the conference participants.

The Chinese Vice Minister was supported by Mahmoud Abbasi, a Deputy Minister of Justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who proposed to establish a SOC Commercial Court.

“This body will settle economic problems arising between states. Both ‘New Silk Road’ and other economic projects of SOC member countries will be difficult to implement without such commercial court. I hope the participants of this conference will support this proposition in their respective countries,” - Abbassi has explained.

In his turn, the Russia’s Justice Minister stated that Russia was ready to discuss this initiative.

At the same time, he called upon the conference to treat the formation of a common legal framework with caution. “Much has been said about approximation and harmonization of SOC countries legislations. However, we need first to realize what differences exist between our laws. And I shall tell you that they are very different across our countries,” – the Minister stressed. He proposed that it would be only logical to first create a database on legal practices in SOC member states and form basic guidelines of the regulatory environment later. In this way, according to Konovalov, a new approach to legal integration could be formed without mistakes made in the past.

VI St. Petersburg International Legal Forum is held in May 18 – 21, 2016. Plenary session and round tables will take place in the Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building, owned by the State Hermitage Museum. This year the event brings together delegates from over 80 countries. The Forum program includes presentations, open lectures, conferences, and over 50 round-table discussions.