The US-China Trade Negotiation: A Contract Theory Perspective
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law
黃乾亨中國法研究中心
Chinese Law Blog
Chinese Law Blog promotes legal scholarship with the aim to develop a deeper understanding of China and to facilitate open dialogue between the East and the West. Mainly sourcing from the Chinese Law eJournal edited by the Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, the Blog selects and posts the most cutting-edge research on Chinese law on a near daily basis. It will also track pertinent news, reports, activities, and events that contribute insights into the Chinese legal system.
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The Law of Information States: Evidence from China and the United States
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Bridget Fahey, University of Chicago Law School
Yuping Lin, Yale Law School
Taisu Zhang, Yale University - Law School
Government could not function-legally, administratively, or politically-without producing information about the population, the economy, crime, elections, public health, and more. This Article theorizes the informational incentives of political and administrative officials and the legal interventions that can control them. It then uses case studies in the United States and China to illustrate those informational dynamics in practice. Our account reveals a novel form of information regulation: government structure and, in particular, the vertical division of informational powers between levels of government, or "informational federalism." We describe the use of informational federalism and its distinctive functions as part of the portfolio of informational production law in regimes that are both strongly federalist like the United States and strongly centralized like China.
Introduction to Liang Zhiping: The Rule of Law and the Rule of Virtue
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Björn Ahl, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Cologne
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Yujun Huang, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE), University of Washington School of Law, Macau University of Science and Technology
YaoHui Xue, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE), Southwest Minzu University
Artificial Intelligence "Law(s)" in China: Retrospect and Prospect
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Wayne Wei Wang, The University of Hong Kong - Faculty of Law, Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - Center for Technology and Society
Lingfeng Zhu, DreamSmart Group
Xiang Wang, General Administration of Customs
Xingsi Di, Guangzhou University
Yue Zhu, Tongji University - Law School
This paper examines China's evolving AI regulation, focusing on the interplay between fragmented laws, technical standards, and sectoral governance frameworks. Case studies on autonomous driving and financial AI demonstrate how adaptive regulatory models balance innovation with risk management via pilot projects, stringent data protection, and iterative policy evolution. These models transition from localized experiments to national standards, managing risks through data governance and public safety measures. Analyzing legislative proposals like the Model Artificial Intelligence Law (MAIL) and the Artificial Intelligence Law of P.R. China (Scholarly Draft Proposal), this paper contrasts MAIL's centralized, precautionary framework with the Scholarly Draft's flexible, tiered system that promotes innovation through differentiated risk management. This reflects the tension between central regulatory control and sector-specific governance in aligning rapid technological advancement with coherent legislative oversight. The paper argues that a phased legislative strategy emphasizing flexibility, cross-sectoral consistency, and proactive engagement with emerging technologies is essential for China to sustain global competitiveness while ensuring ethical and safe AI development. By integrating local experimentation, sectoral adaptation, and incremental national standardization, it advocates for balancing regulatory oversight with technological innovation. Ultimately, the findings reflect China's efforts to craft a resilient legal framework that mitigates AI risks while fostering sustained and responsible innovation.
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Fen Jiang, Ningbo University
Hong Wu, NingboTech University - School of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Shanghai Xinchuanghua Cultural Development Co., Ltd. v. AI Company (pseudonym) is the first in the world to render a judgement on whether a generative artificial intelligence service provider should bear copyright liability for the infringement of other people's prior works by its generated content. The court ruled on the types of copyright exclusive rights involved.
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
James Chang, DLA Piper
Over the past three decades, tens of millions of peasants in China have had their land expropriated by local governments. The majority of existing scholarship analyzes the weak protection of property rights in rural China through an economic lens. This paper argues that, instead of overemphasizing economic causes and consequences, scholars should study land expropriation and the related power struggle among political actors as a “state formation” process. In a state formation process, the national government has to compete with local governments and other elite political actors over the authority to create the political and legal framework under which policies are made and enforced. This paper first demonstrates that political and legal arrangements in states undergoing economic or political transition are neither stable nor consolidated. China, with its compartmentalized governmental structure, provides a ready battleground for elite actors to seize rule-making authority. Land expropriation in China is an example of elite competition between the central and local governments. This elite competition cannot be explained in purely economic terms and must be understood as ongoing political bargaining. The outcome of this competition will determine not only the fate of China’s rural population of over 700 million, but also the political and legal structure of post-reform China.
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Knut Benjamin Pissler, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
German Abstract: Mit Wirkung zum 1.7.2024 hat der Ständige Ausschuss des Nationalen Volkskongresses am 29.12.2023 das ursprünglich 1993 verabschiedete Gesellschaftsgesetz zum zweiten Mal neu gefasst. Der Gesetzgeber bezweckt mit der Neufassung die (weitere) Reform staatseigener Unternehmen, nämlich die Einführung eines Rechnungsprüfungsausschusses, der in bestimmten Gesellschaften die Funktion des Aufsichtsrates übernimmt. Außerdem will er das Unternehmensumfeld optimieren und Marktinnovationen fördern. Dabei gehe es darum, Erleichterung für den Markteintritt und -austritt von Gesellschaften zu schaffen, bei der Unternehmensfinanzierung mehr Optionen zu bieten, die Organisationsverfassung der Gesellschaften zu flexibilisieren und die Kosten von Unternehmen zu senken. Allgemeines Ziel ist weiterhin, Vermögensrechte der Gesellschaft, ihrer Gesellschafter und ihrer Gläubiger besser zu schützen, indem insbesondere der Gründer, aber auch Gesellschafter in allen Phasen der Gesellschaft von der Gründung bis zur Abwicklung stärker zur Verantwortung gezogen werden. Schließlich geht es dem Gesetzgeber darum, die gesunde Entwicklung des Kapitalmarktes zu fördern, indem die Corporate Governance verbessert und der Schutz der legitimen Rechte und Interessen der Anleger, insbesondere der kleinen und mittleren Anleger, gestärkt wird.
English Abstract: On 29 December 2023, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress revised the Company Law, originally enacted in 1993, for the second time, with amendments to take effect on 1 July 2024. The legislator’s intention with the revised version was to continue the reform of state-owned enterprises, this time through the introduction of an audit committee, which in certain companies will take on the functions of the supervisory board. The current version also aims to improve the business environment and encourage market innovation. The aim is to make it easier for companies to enter and exit the market, provide more options for business financing, make the organizational structure of companies more flexible, and reduce costs to corporations. The objective generally remains to better protect company assets as well as shareholders and creditors, in particular by holding not only the founder but also the shareholders more accountable at all stages of the business, from formation to liquidation. Finally, the legislator has sought to promote a sound capital market by improving corporate governance and by better protecting the legitimate rights and interests of investors, especially small and mid-sized investors
Posted on Fri, Nov 17, 2025
Ming-hsi Chu, Northwestern University - Department of History
The taxation of foreign entities remains a critical imperative for developing economies, given the paramount importance of foreign direct investment in economic development. However, in contexts of limited state capacity, non-domestic persons and entities demonstrate heightened propensity for tax avoidance. This phenomenon is exemplified by the case of Republican China, where international legal scholars sought to establish legitimacy for domestic taxation policies within the international legal framework.
The period 1928-1949 marked a significant transformation in Republican China's fiscal governance. The implementation of the Provisional Income Tax Act of 1936 represented an unprecedented initiative by the Nationalist government to extend its fiscal jurisdiction over both domestic and foreign residents, despite the constraints imposed by extraterritorial privileges. Chinese jurisprudential scholars and diplomatic representatives persistently advocated for international recognition of China's sovereign right to levy taxes on foreign entities.
Bilateral negotiations with major powers—notably France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States—illuminated the complexities inherent in implementing international tax law within non-Western jurisdictions. Each nation's diplomatic position reflected an intersection of juridical interpretations, economic imperatives, and geopolitical strategies. While certain nations, exemplified by Germany and Great Britain, acknowledged China's theoretical fiscal sovereignty, pragmatic implementation remained problematic due to concerns regarding equitable treatment and competitive neutrality.
The Chinese case exemplifies the systemic challenges confronting developing nations in asserting fiscal sovereignty within international legal frameworks. The emergent principle of "control as applied" highlighted a fundamental paradox: effective taxation necessitates robust state capacity, which itself requires substantial fiscal resources. This historical analysis contributes to the theoretical understanding of the complex relationship between international tax law and sovereign authority, particularly in the context of nations undergoing state modernization.
The Nationalist government's attempts to implement foreign resident taxation achieved only partial success, constrained by both exogenous resistance and endogenous limitations. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 precipitated a paradigmatic shift, as the new regime's isolationist orientation effectively terminated foreign extraterritorial privileges. This historical period provides significant insights into the persistent challenges of fiscal sovereignty and the evolution of international taxation regimes.
The Birth of Insolvency in China: Judicial Innovation during the Wenzhou Curb Crisis
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Ding Chen, University of Sheffield
Simon Deakin, affiliation not provided to SSRN
In this paper, through a case study focusing on the evolution of China's insolvency law, we test the 'transplant effect' hypothesis, in particular the claim that transplanted laws can only work when there is local or 'endogenous' demand for them in the 'host' or 'receiving' state. We also test claims made for a 'co-evolutionary' understanding of the law-economy relationship in the context of China's development. In addition to documentary sources, this paper draws on interviews we carried out in Wenzhou in September 2017 and December 2018. Our study shows that aspects of the transplant and coevolution hypotheses are in need of some modification if they are to explain China's legal and economic development. The embedding of legal transplants is less a response to the demands of business actors, and more the result of proactive interventions on the part of judges and officials. It also suggests that formal rules can be operationalized at the level of practice once they are seen as legitimate. While this is a process which takes time, a period of crisis provides opportunities for the learning process around the use of formal rules and procedures to be accelerated.
The Last Emperor? Lessons for the Prospects of Liberal Authoritarianism from Xi Jinping's China
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Roderick M. Hills, Jr., New York University School of Law
After China seemed to weather the 2008 financial crisis much better than its liberal democratic competitors, many commentators and scholars contemplated the possibility that non-democratic regimes could compete successfully by achieving stability, prosperity, and power that eluded rival forms of government. By 2024, however, the sheen has rubbed off the China Model. Xi Jinping's China seems plagued by the related problems of high municipal debt, oversupply of real estate, overcapacity in manufacturing, low consumer demand, demographic decline, and structural dependence on government-led investment in infrastructure for economic growth. The question remains whether these problems are inveterate to authoritarian regimes or just the happenstance of one leader's poor judgments. This article answers this question with some cautious pessimism about the future of liberal authoritarianism. Political theory since Machiavelli and Bodin has noted that regimes led by a single monarch confront two basic and related problems: First, obtaining and exploiting accurate information is difficult, and, second, such systems lack reliable systems for executive succession. This essay suggests that these problems are twins, connected to each other by the effect exerted by the politics of executive succession on the willingness of public and private actors to supply information to the leadership. These twin problems are also, this essay argues, responsible for China's current travails. Democratic partisan competition is one way to overcome the problem of succession politics' distorting information available to an authoritarian regime's leaders, but power dispersion can undermine energetic government. Power sharing and power concentration, in short, pose an unavoidable dilemma of balancing the benefits of generating information through stability against the costs of paralyzing governmental response to problems like corruption.
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Yang Chen, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong
The current IP preliminary injunction system in China is an awkward mixture that has developed under two shadows: U.S.–China trade relations, and path dependence. This article traces the historical moments when China amended its rules on IP preliminary injunctions. It finds that, while U.S.–China trade relations facilitated the transplantation of equitable standards into the regime, the basic procedural framework, rooted in the civil law tradition, remains largely intact. These double shadows have introduced pressing problems into the system. However, most of these issues can be attributed to China's retention of its basic procedural framework, which is shared with and originates from the property preservation system. Path dependence theory aptly explains this developmental trajectory and offers normative guidance for future reforms. It may not be feasible to conduct a full cost–benefit analysis on establishing a standalone framework for IP preliminary injunctions in China, which would represent a radical alteration of the system. However, the developmental-evolution model of path dependence theory can still provide valuable insights, even if the system currently exhibits a semi-strong form of path dependence. Chinese legislators could design future incremental reforms with path evolution in mind, aiming for a gradual recombination that ultimately pulls the IP preliminary injunction system out of its original procedural framework. Once sufficient incremental reforms have accumulated, decision-makers can seize critical junctures (such as future escalations in U.S.–China trade conflicts) as opportunities to establish a new, standalone framework for IP preliminary injunctions, thereby breaking the lock-in loop.
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Matthew S. Erie, University of Oxford, University of Oxford - Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
Much of scholarly writing on compliance is derived from the experiences of Western multi-national corporations operating in developed economies. This introduction to the special issue “China in Compliance” departs from such convention by asking how compliance works in China. By broadening the scope of compliance studies to include non-Western contexts, including China and its relationship to the “Global South” and nondemocratic settings, the special issue breaks new ground in the empirical analysis of compliance industries, practices, and professionals. The special issue is comprised of eight articles that illustrate specific compliance problems for compliance in Chinese overseas direct investment. This introduction first provides a detailed overview of the growth of domestic corporate compliance in China over the last several years and then puts this growth in the context of Chinese companies engaging in overseas projects. It subsequently gives a roadmap of the articles and highlights their key themes and findings.
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Maryam Mukhtar, Rawalpindi Bar Association
Ayesha Siddiqah, Rawalpindi Bar Association
Special Economic Zones (herein after use as SEZs) have emerged as crucial instruments in the economic development strategies of several countries across the world. This research comprehensively analyzes the legal framework related to SEZs in Pakistan. The basic aim of this research is to examine the legal structures governing SEZs in Pakistan with a comparative lens on China's successful SEZ model. By leveraging China's experience, this research aims to offer practical recommendations for enhancing the legal infrastructure of SEZs in Pakistan. This dissertation adopted a qualitative research approach, encompassing desk review and content analysis, to collate and scrutinize data from existing resources, thereby negating the requirement for fieldwork. A key element of the research is the comparative analysis between the SEZ model as implemented in China and its adoption in Pakistan.
Asian Private International Law and Hong Kong
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Wilson Lui, The University of Hong Kong - Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne - Melbourne Law School
Posted on Fri, Jan 17, 2025
Hong Wu, NingboTech University
Render unto Caesar: Strategic Avoidance in Chinese Courts
Posted on Fri, Nov 29, 2024
Yueduan Wang, Peking University
Judicialization has caused the politicization of courts around the world. In democracies, many courts have responded by shunning politically controversial cases to shield themselves from potential backlash. However, such strategic avoidance under authoritarianism remains understudied despite the heightened threat of extrajudicial intervention. Examining China's recent de-judicialization campaign, this study finds that Chinese courts have substantially reduced the number of politically difficult cases in their dockets by transferring them to nonjudicial actors, such as mediators, who facilitate settlements by flexibly leveraging social status, local customs, and even religious teachings. The campaign has thereby mitigated the pressure to further politicize court operations and helped to preserve judicial autonomy and professionalism. This study contributes to our understanding of the puzzling coexistence of legal development and growing arbitrariness in modern authoritarian regimes.
Posted on Fri, Nov 29, 2024
Jinyan Li, Independent
This article considers China's rise as a global economic power and the implications for global tax governance, especially in light of the United States' leadership in the international tax system, e.g. the Two-Pillar Solution.
China's Aging Problem Will Be Much More Serious When Urbanization is Completed
Posted on Fri, Nov 29, 2024
Alicia García-Herrero, Bruegel, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST)
China is experiencing a rapidly declining fertility rate and increased life expectancy. Most people attribute China's structural deceleration to its demographics, but the reality is that the still-incomplete urbanization is helping to offset the negative impact of aging on growth. In fact, until 2035, China's labor force is only projected to contract in the rural areas, while the urban labor force will continue to grow, which is much more productive than in the rural areas. This is why aging will not have a negative impact on growth until urbanization is completed, which is estimated to happen around 2035. From that year onwards, the rapid fall in labor supply will shave off 1.3 percentage points of growth each year. By then, China is likely to grow only 1 percent per year, in line with Japan's potential growth today. Nevertheless, rapid robotization and artificial intelligence may mitigate the negative impact of aging in economic growth. Robotization has been ratcheted up in China-as well as in Japan much earlier-but neither in Japan's case nor in China's have we so far seen productivity increase, on the contrary. China's economic growth trajectory has shifted significantly, dropping from a peak growth rate of 10.6 percent in 2010 to 6.1 percent in 2019. The subsequent disruption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rather muted and continuing recovery beginning in 2023 underscores the trend of structural deceleration in the Chinese economy. China's rapidly aging population has been perceived to be a driver behind the slowdown in growth. 1 Our analysis, however, suggests that this is not yet the case. Demographic changes in China have not yet significantly impeded economic growth in China because of the ongoing urbanization process which is due to continue until 2035 when China's urbanization rate reaches that of developed economies. Continued urbanization for the next decade or so implies that the labor supply will continue to grow in the productive areas of the economy, the cities, even if falling rapidly in the (unproductive) rural areas. Beyond 2035, when urbanization is completed, the fall in the labor supply will inevitably hit the cities, leading to a fall in productivity and, thereby, growth. China has implemented a range of policy measures to address the challenges of population aging, with a focus on increasing the birth rate and adapting to the aging society. In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced with the two-child policy, and in 2021, a three-child policy was introduced to further boost the birth rate.
Assessing the Impact of the OECD's Multilateral Instrument on China's Tax Treaties (2017-2022)
Posted on Fri, Nov 29, 2024
Dongmei Qiu, Independent
This article examines China's stance towards the OECD's "Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting" (the MLI) (2017) regarding the ratification process. It also considers the effects of the MLI on the related provisions in China's existing tax treaties.
Posted on Fri, Nov 15, 2024
Xiaohan Sun, Xiamen University, School of Law
Kenneth Glenn Dau-Schmidt, Indiana University, Maurer School of Law
Zhenxing Ke, Nankai University
Legal education plays an important role in upholding the rule of law and protecting the rights of individuals. There is a dearth of research on the impact of differences in institutional and cultural contexts on legal education. This paper examines the impact of educational systems and culture on the law school experience of American and Chinese students and assesses whether the students' experiences meet the educational goals of law school diversity. Using data from LSSSE 2020-2021, we compared and evaluated the law school experiences of 21,706 American and 218 Chinese students using descriptive statistics and linear regression. We found that differences in educational systems and cultures influence Chinese students' satisfaction with law school to some extent. Chinese students focus more on interactions with faculty rather than students, and their enjoyment of law school life relies more singularly on quantifiable achievement motivations. This study contributes to an understanding of how culture and institutions have shaped the development of legal education in different countries, and how a very different sociopolitical environment affects the satisfaction of American and international Chinese students with their law school experience. These findings help to rethink whether legal education effectively contributes to the fulfillment of liberal legalism. In addition, the findings urge policymakers and law schools to adjust their strategies in order to achieve the goal of diverse interactions in legal education.
Posted on Fri, Nov 15, 2024
Fang Zhao, Fudan University
Ning Zhu, Fudan University
Riitta Vornanen, University of Eastern Finland
Timo Toikko, University of Eastern Finland
This study explores the persistent gaps between research, policy, and practice in child protection systems using a case study from China. Despite national reforms and efforts to develop a systems-based approach, the child protection system faces significant fragmentation, particularly at the county level. This research focuses on County L, a pilot site for the “Protecting Children’s Growth” project, which aims to bridge these gaps by establishing a comprehensive, three-level child protection network. Utilizing qualitative methods including field observations, interviews, and document analysis, the study highlights the challenges of cross-sector collaboration, resource shortages, and the imbalance between prevention and intervention. Findings suggest that while policies promote systemic coordination, implementation is hindered by local flexibility, unclear responsibilities, and insufficient professional services. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for further research on sustainability, capacity building, and the integration of data-driven decision-making in child protection systems.
Beyond the Verdict: The Impact of Juries on Judicial Support
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Yutian An
Yingjie Fan
Citizen participation has been considered as a main channel for political legitimacy, but does this logic apply to a more technical legal context like the judiciary? This paper explores the relationship between perceived citizen participation in the form of jury and its subsequent impact on judicial support. We theorize jury as a mechanism to strengthen judicial support in two ways: it elevates the perceived procedural fairness in individual adjudications, and the popular participation aspect of it can legitimize the broader judicial system. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates fieldwork with a survey experiment, this study investigates how the jury-like system in China (the lay assessor system) has yielded popular support for the judiciary. Our findings reveal that lay participation in judicial decision-making not only improves perceptions of procedural fairness but also increases demand for lay participation. As a mechanism of due process, lay assessors can enhance fairness perceptions of case outcomes. Furthermore, voting as the defining feature of the jury system substantively augments the perceived judicial legitimacy. These results affirm our theoretical framework concerning the jury's role in garnering judicial support. The dual function of the jury, as both an instrument of due process and a facilitator of popular participation, demonstrates its potential to strengthen judicial support across various regime and legal system types.
The Impact of Divorce Cooling-Off Period on Registered Divorces:Evidence from China
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Wenge Zheng
Bowen Niu
Zhenguo Chen
The divorce rate of China has continued to rise since the beginning of the 21st century. In order to reduce impulsive divorces, the divorce cooling-off period (DCOP) system was established in the Civil Code of China. The aim of this research is to examine the impact of DCOP on registered divorces. Data from National Bureau of Statistics and statistical bureaus of 31 provinces were utilized in this work. The event study analysis reveals that the number of registered divorces decreases significantly in China after the DCOP provision’s enforcement. The ordinary least squares model indicates an average annual decrease of about 2.6 million registered divorces when the DCOP provision takes effect and DCOP plays a decisive role in this decrease. This research not only highlights the important role of DCOP in reducing registered divorces but also provides insights on how to improve the DCOP system and promote the stability of marriage.
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Riccardo Vecellio Segate
Despite limited progress within international institutions, the need for articulating a regulatory framework for cyber operations in outer space is becoming a pressing concern. One precondition for regulation is to share cybersecurity and outer-space common terminology that can inform the negotiation of standards, policies and laws. While the UN Institute for Disarmament Research has recently issued a baseline policy glossary, binding technical definitions are missing, and the lack of a binding international cybersecurity regime adds to the obsolescence of a binding outer-space regime tracing back to half a century ago. As the IEEE SA embarks on the drafting of the first-ever technical standard for cybersecure-by- design outer-space missions, scoping and conceptual challenges abound. Technical standards are US-centred, non-binding, engineering-intensive exercises, where lawyers and Asian jurisdictions are only marginally involved; nevertheless, as China’s framework for cybersecurity is refined and its involvement in outer-space policing deepens, its disengagement from Western-driven standard-setting bodies appears unsustainable. Drawing on the specific challenge of defining what makes a cyber system ‘mission-critical’, I expose the necessity to examine how domestic cybersecurity laws from a diverse range of States identify ‘critical’ information infrastructure. Generalising therefrom, I advocate a jurisdictionally inclusive process that combines American supremacy in technical standard-setting for outer-space missions with Chinese normative contributions to cybersecurity regulation, including on data localisation and mandatory multilevel cyber-hygiene requirements. I further argue that involving legal experts from a diverse range of jurisdictions and sociolegal cultures may enhance the global reception of standardisation outputs, thus securing higher degrees of voluntary compliance therewith. This could foster cooperation and promote regional and global satellite cybersecurity.
The EU's new Foreign Subsidy Regulation on Collision Course with the WTO
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Malte Frank
The European Union (EU) has become increasingly concerned about government-dominated economies that provide financing for companies engaging in commercial activities in the EU. The concern is that companies receiving these so-called foreign subsides gain an unfair advantage over their European competitors. Whilst, until recently, the existence of foreign subsidies was discarded as unrealistic, the EU now maintains that EU companies are facing a growing competitive disadvantage as certain emerging economies, and China in particular, increasingly »globalize« their use of subsidies.
With astonishing unity and speed, the EU has, therefore, created an ambitious piece of legislation, the Regulation 2022/2560, commonly referred to as Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). The FSR allows the European Commission (EC) to take unilateral action against foreign subsidies that are presumed to distort the common market. The EU's plan represents a far-reaching change in the EU's foreign trade policy and creates a field of tension with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Whilst there is legal uncertainty about the scope of the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), some of the practices now regulated by the FSR most likely fall under the SCM Agreement which was incorporated into EU-law by the Regulation 2016/1037 (Anti-Subsidy Regulation). Such an overlap is conceivable, for example, if a WTO Member grants a payment to a company established in the EU, so that this company imports certain domestic goods from the WTO Member granting the financial contribution into the EU. The FSR provides for a conflict rule establishing the supremacy of WTO law in such situations. However, considering the EU legislator's interpretation of the SCM Agreement, there are considerable doubts as to whether this mechanism will effectively prevent the EC from taking unilateral actions in an area that is actually subject to WTO law. In the area of overlaps, the FSR may, therefore, violate the supremacy of WTO law which would lead to the illegality of the FSR.
This paper addresses this risk and provides an outlook on how the EU could ensure WTO compliance by not applying the FSR if the regulated practice falls also under the SCM Agreement.
Fragmentation as Friction: Advancing GBA Development through Rule Harmonization
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Mark Feldman
Keynote address delivered at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Legal Forum (2024) held in Guangzhou, China on August 30, 2024. Rule harmonization efforts in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) can be advanced by prioritizing several key factors, including a focus on dynamic subject matter areas such as digital trade and international dispute resolution, making effective use of pilot zones, and maximizing stakeholder engagement, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. Ultimately, GBA rule harmonization can proceed on two tracks: a rulemaking track and an implementation track. For the implementation track, rigorous training and education can play a central role. The combination of successful rulemaking and the successful implementation of rulemaking could contribute significantly to the GBA's profile as a global model for development.
Old Wine in a New Bottle? – An Empirical Evaluation of the Judicial Reforms in China in the 2010s
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Peter Chan
This article provides an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of the judicial reform measures implemented in China in the 2010s. Among other objectives, the reforms aimed to strengthen the independence of judges, the financial autonomy of courts and the professionalism of adjudicators. Critics have questioned the success of the reforms, citing continued government intervention with adjudication and unchanged structural problems with courts. To date, there has been limited empirical literature focusing specifically on the judicial reform measures in the 2010s in China. This article provides a glimpse into what really was happening on the ground since the reforms through the lens of frontline judges. It concludes that the reforms have enhanced the financial autonomy of courts, the independence of individual adjudicators and the quality of judgments. 47% of the judges who responded to the survey agreed that the judicial reform was extremely effective. However, this study also reveals that the reforms failed to tackle deep-seated problems of the Chinese judiciary. Local government intervention with adjudication is still rampant. Courts continued to be severely understaffed. Judges are still ready to abridge procedures to arrive at an outcome that is consistent with the policy of the court leadership. While the reform is not “old wine in a new bottle”, there is still much room for improvement in the administration of justice in China.
Posted on Fri, Nov 1, 2024
Kevin J. O'Brien
Will China democratize? Slater and Wong argue that Party leaders should have the confidence to do so, but do they and is democracy the "right question" for China now or in the intermediate future?
Call for Papers: 10th Asian Constitutional Law Forum (Dec 9-10, 2024)
Posted on Fri, Jul 12, 2024
The University of Hong Kong
The 10th Asian Constitutional Forum (ACLF) will be held in Hong Kong on December 9-10, 2024, under the auspices of the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law and its Centre for Comparative and Public Law, with the support of the Association for Asian Constitutional Studies. The closing date for submission of proposals is 31 July 2024.
Bibliography of Academic Writings in the Field of Chinese Law in Western Languages in 2023
Posted on Thu, Jul 11, 2024
Knut Benjamin Pissler, Max Planck Institute
Fenja Eckardt, Max Planck Institute
Luca Pisanelli, University of Cologne
The bibliography aims to give readers an overview on articles in academic journals, contributions to edited volumes, monographs and textbooks published in English or German in the field of Chinese law published in 2023.
The Comparative Analysis on Arbitration Systems between China and the US
Posted on Thu, Jul 11, 2024
Wenwei Huang, George Mason University
This comparative examination provides a comprehensive analysis of arbitration in China and the United States, two major economic forces. Drawing from historical, legislative, governmental, and cultural viewpoints, the research explores facets such as the progression of arbitration statutes, the role of state involvement, how cultural traditions impact practices, noteworthy case studies, and what this implies for international commerce.
Energy Consumption Ramifications of U.S.-China AI Competition
Posted on Wed, Jul 10, 2024
Joyce Guo et al, Yale University
U.S.-China AI competition has created a ‘race to the bottom’, where each nation’s attempts to cut each other off artificial intelligence (AI) computing resources through protectionist policies comes at a cost – greater energy consumption. This article shows that heightened energy consumption stems from six key areas. By investigating the unintended consequences of the U.S.-China AI competition policies, the article highlights the need to redesign AI competition to reduce unintended consequences on the environment, consumers, and other countries.
Centralized Law Enforcement in Contemporary China
Posted on Wed, Jul 10, 2024
Bo Yin, Beijing Normal University
Yu Mou, University of London
In 2018, China announced a three-year war on “black societies and evil forces” and promised to take down various forms of organized crime and evil forces within society. This article examines the operational features of this particular crackdown and how they diverged from previous “strike hard” campaigns. Using democratic centralism as a liberal lens, this campaign showcases the struggle between the imperative of legality and the politics of a major campaign in China.
The Anti-Suit Injunctions in Patent Litigation in China
Posted on Tue, Jul 9, 2024
Alexandr Svetlicinii, University of Macau
Fali Xie, University of Macau
Starting from 2020, the Chinese courts have actively participated in the jurisdictional battles for the standard essential patent (SEP) disputes, a pivotal development marked by the Supreme People’s Court’s inaugural SEP-related anti-suit injunction (ASI) in Huawei v Conversant. Subsequently, lower courts in China have emulated this approach by issuing ASIs targeting SEPs in the domain of information and communication technology.
Posted on Tue, Jul 9, 2024
Milan Babić, Roskilde University
Adam D Dixon, Maastricht University
Chinese outward investment is increasing in its relevance for the global economy, and its effects on host states are increasingly being scrutinized globally. While European policy-making was ambiguous about the question of hosting Chinese state-led investment (CSLI) in the early 2010s, we can observe a recent surge of protectionist legal measures across Europe. What explains this trend among different European countries?
Promote or Constrain? Shadow of U.S. Sanctions on Radical Innovation in China
Posted on Mon, Jul 8, 2024
Chong Yang, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhiying Liu, University of Science and Technology of China
The recent focus on new technonationalism by the U.S. against China centers on entity list sanctions, impacting firms' innovation resources. However, the efficacy of these sanctions remains debated. This study addresses this question by analyzing the impact of entity list sanctions on radical innovation in China from network inertia perspective.
The Digital Silk Road and China's Influence on Standard Setting
Posted on Mon, Jul 8, 2024
Alex He, Centre for International Governance Innovation
China is striving to become a leader in international standard setting, and the Digital Silk Road, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand its global infrastructure and markets, is key to realizing this goal. Both roads depend on standard connectivity, fuelled by Chinese private companies that are the driving force behind China’s growing role as a leader in technology development and shaping standards in both domestic and global markets.
The Comprehensive Implementation of the Registration-based System of IPO Regulation in China
Posted on Fri, Jul 5, 2024
Fa Chen, King’s College London
Lijun Zhao, City University of London
Implemented for nearly four years under gradualism, the registration-based system was expanded to the whole Chinese stock market in February 2023. This article conducts a close examination of the registration-based system, exploring its functioning in practice, canvassing its progress and problems in accommodating issuers and looking into the landscape and prospects of investor protection.
Building Responsible and Sustainable Supply Chain Frameworks
Posted on Fri, Jul 5, 2024
Stefanie Schacherer, Singapore Management University
The article first explores the integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in international investment law. It then evaluates the different CSR initiatives taken by the EU and China that frame their foreign direct investments (FDI). Focusing on EU–China FDI relations, the article delineates implications for global supply chain governance, offering insights into the evolving landscape of CSR frameworks, and the plagued path in adopting mandatory corporate responsibility standards.
Consensual Settlement of Competition Disputes in China: A Call for Conditional Arbitrability
Posted on Thu, Jul 4, 2024
Alexandr Svetlicinii, University of Macau
Due to the lack of certainty as to the arbitrability of antitrust disputes, the competition-related arguments may undermine the goals of the current reform of China’s Arbitration Law. The paper addresses this problem by advancing a call for conditional arbitrability of antitrust disputes in China. This policy proposal is grounded on the analysis of the divergent judicial approaches to arbitrability of competition-related issues developed by the Chinese judiciary.
Is Chinese Law Well-Prepared for AI Songs?
Posted on Thu, Jul 4, 2024
Yang Chen, City University of Hong Kong
Recently, AI songs cloning celebrities’ real voices have become a key topic in the entertainment industry and among fan groups across the globe, particularly in China. The controversy centers on whether the personality rights of celebrities under Chinese law govern any conduct concerning AI songs mimicking their real voices. This article aims to discuss a more theoretical and deeper question: even if it is feasible to interpret the current law broadly to allow such a cause of action to regulate AI songs in China, should such an extensive interpretative approach be adopted?
Demystifying Data Law in China: A Unified Regime of Tomorrow
Posted on Wed, Jul 3, 2024
Peiru Cai, Fudan University
Li Chen, Fudan University
The overall purpose of Chinese data law is to maintain and advance the physical security and juridical security of data. However, the interests underlying each legislation are quite different; the specific legal goals and normative values of each legislation also reveal structural differences. There is controversy over whether, in practice, each legislation should be applied sequentially in each given situation instead of applying the different legislations simultaneously.
Posted on Wed, Jul 3, 2024
Bo Li, Tsinghua University
Jacopo Ponticelli, Northwestern University
Using a new case-level dataset, the authors study how the staggered introduction of specialized courts across Chinese cities affected insolvency resolution and the local economy. They provide evidence consistent with court specialization increasing efficiency via selection of better trained judges and higher judicial independence from local politicians. They also document that cities introducing specialized courts experience a relative reallocation of employment out of zombie firms-intensive sectors, as well as faster firm entry and a larger increase in average capital productivity.
Posted on Tue, Jul 2, 2024
Yutian An, Harvard University
Yingjie Fan, Princeton University
Xuancheng Qian, Princeton University
Leo Yang Yang, Stanford University
Criminal law is typically seen as the domain of judges and prosecutors, yet police officers often act as de facto policymakers through their enforcement discretion. This paper explores the impact of police discretion on prostitution regulation in China, following a 2017 judicial interpretation that lowered the threshold for prosecuting pimps.
The Curious Case of Blockchain in Rural China: Unravelling power, Profit, and Surveillance
Posted on Tue, Jul 2, 2024
Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, Australian National University
Blockchain originated from the aspiration for decentralization, and in Western countries, its association with freedom from governmental and corporate dominance remains unwavering. However, in China–where blockchain has taken an intriguing foothold–the socio-technical imaginaries of blockchain diverge significantly. As China rises in blockchain development, critical literature examining its ventures is notably lacking. This article analyses state-led initiatives and corporate endeavours related to blockchain deployment in rural China.
Innovation and Development of the China International Commercial Court
Posted on Fri, Jun 28, 2024
Long Fei, PRC Supreme People’s Court
This article introduces several innovative features of the China International Commercial Court, including a composition of only senior judges, the International Commercial Expert Committee, first-instance-as-final jurisdiction, a ‘one-stop’ dispute resolution platform, flexibility in finding foreign laws, and the use of cutting-edge information technology.
Posted on Fri, Jun 28, 2024
Rogier Creemers, Leiden University
Susan Trevaskes, Griffith University
This book argues China’s legal system needs to be studied from an internal perspective, to take into account the characteristic architecture of China’s Party-state. To do so, it addresses two key elements: ideology and organisation.
Law and Norms: Empirical Evidence
Posted on Thu, Jun 27, 2024
Tom Lane, University of Nottingham
Daniele Nosenzo, University of Nottingham
Silvia Sonderegger, University of Nottingham
A large theoretical literature argues laws exert a causal effect on norms, but empirical evidence remains scant. Using a novel identification strategy, the authors provide a compelling empirical test of this proposition. They use incentivized vignette experiments to directly measure social norms relating to actions subject to legal thresholds. Their large-scale experiments run in the UK, US, and China show that laws can causally influence social norms.
Does Environmental Court Lead to Local Green Growth? Evidence from 230 Cities in China
Posted on Thu, Jun 27, 2024
Ge Xin, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Feng Wang, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Leveraging the panel data of 230 cities from 2007-2016 and taking the establishment of environment courts as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses the difference-in-differences (DID) approach to examine the effects of building environmental courts on green economic growth at the prefectural level.
Where Rookies Prevail: Digital Habitus and Age-based Earnings Differentials in Online Legal Services
Posted on Wed, Jun 26, 2024
Yao Yao, University of Ottawa
Sida Liu, The University of Hong Kong
This research investigates how and why the digitalization of work can disrupt age-based earnings stratification in an occupation. Analysing a service archive dataset from a major online legal service platform in China, the study finds that, contrary to the traditional patterns of income inequality, younger lawyers earn more than older lawyers in the digital legal field. By examining habitus and capital in the emerging digital legal field, this research deepens the understanding of the impact of digital technologies on knowledge-intensive occupations.
Data Governance in China’s Digital Market Economy
Posted on Wed, Jun 26, 2024
Sijuade Animashaun, The University of Hong Kong
The article articulates the theories at the background of the fundamental dynamics and platform business models driving the Chinese digital economy. It highlights the challenges and opportunities these data-driven innovators pose to Chinese consumers and financial market efficiency. To these concerns, it provides an overview of the consumer-centric framework in the Personal Information Protection Law and offers critical analysis of the possibilities and drawbacks of the right to data portability in Art 45.
Of Judge Quota and Judicial Autonomy: An Enduring Professionalization Project in China
Posted on Tue, Jun 25, 2024
Ying Sun, Sun Yat-sen University
Hualing Fu, The University of Hong Kong
This article presents the findings of original research on “judge quota” reform. The reform's agenda was essentially aimed at professionalization. A key component of the reform was to reduce the level and the intensity of both political and bureaucratic control over judges in adjudication and to decentralize judicial power to the rank-and-file judges, restoring individualized judging while enhancing judicial accountability. This article critically examines the potential and limits of the judge quota reform in the context of incremental legal reform in a party-state.
Filial Piety across Legal Systems
Posted on Tue, Jun 25, 2024
Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, Australian National University
This article explores and compares the influence of traditional Chinese legal culture of property on contemporary Chinese societies of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, who share the same legal cultural heritage but have developed different legal systems under different socio-political environment. By examining the approaches in which customary property-holding practices have been codified, and the reasoning made by courts in parent-child property disputes, this article unveils the interpretive and adaptive ingenuity in which the three Chinese societies embrace Confucian ethos and traditional Chinese legal culture.
The Good Lawyer: State-Led Professional Socialization in Contemporary China
Posted on Mon, Jun 24, 2024
Rachel Stern, University of California, Berkeley
Lawrence Liu, University of California, Berkeley
How do authoritarian states define and communicate notions of appropriate work conduct and professional excellence? This article examines three channels of communication used by the Chinese state to signal professional expectations to the bar: the bar exam, the administrative rules governing lawyers, and the state-sanctioned National Outstanding Lawyer Award.
Roads and Rules: What Does Infrastructure Reveal about International Law?
Posted on Mon, Jun 24, 2024
Emma Palmer, Griffith University
Infrastructure has been the focus of geopolitically significant regional strategies, including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Highway. Mega-infrastructure projects are thought to offer crucial stimulus to support economic recovery and “infrastructure diplomacy” efforts. This article draws on insights from new materialism to analyse what infrastructure's entanglements might suggest about international law.
China’s Crackdown on Crypto Mining from a Climate Perspective
Posted on Fri, Jun 21, 2024
Kwan Yiu Cheng, City University of London
This article presents an examination of the unified efforts by China’s central authorities and the judiciary in the crackdown on crypto mining within the country. It discusses the environmental ramifications of crypto mining and traces its development in China, highlighting the resource-intensive nature of the process. Crypto mining risks China’s national objectives of promoting high-quality economic and social development, as well as industrial optimisation, energy conservation and emissions reduction.
The Political Limits of China’s Anti-Corruption Reform
Posted on Fri, Jun 21, 2024
Junyang Wang, Shandong University
In 2016, China undertook a new reform to ‘crush’ corruption by creating a sole and unified state-ranked Supervision Commission (SC). This reform incorporated the anti-corruption bureau of procuratorate into the SC, merging it with the upgraded Supervision Department of the government and the Discipline Inspection Commission (DIC) system of the CCP to address the weakness in the anti-corruption apparatus. However, the reform has failed to free the anti-corruption apparatus from the direct influence of the local leaders it is supposed to supervise.
Home Versus Abroad: China’s Differing Sovereignty Concepts in the South China Sea and the Arctic
Posted on Thu, Jun 20, 2024
Liselotte Odgaard, Hudson Institute
The article contrasts China’s interpretations of sovereignty within its so-called motherland in the South China Sea and far from China’s shores in the Arctic. The PRC has maintained a pre-modern definition of Chinese boundaries in the South China Sea as territorial and ocean frontiers with blurred boundaries to other political authorities. By contrast, far from China’s shores in the Arctic, where China is not the political centre, the PRC seeks to globalise the region, depicting it as a frontier with blurred boundaries of political authority.
Coordinate Rule of Law Efforts in Both Domestic and Foreign-Related Matters
Posted on Thu, Jun 20, 2024
Huang Jin, China University of Political Science and Law
Presently, the focus should be on fostering the development of foreign-related rule of law, maintaining the correct equilibrium between the dyad of rule of law in domestic and foreign-related matters. It is imperative to augment strategic design and institutional construction in the realm of rule of law on issues related to foreign parties, step up research on and practical application of international law, and reinforce the cultivation of legal professionals in this area.
Standard-Essential Patent Legal Protection in China’s Telecommunication Industry
Posted on Wed, Jun 19, 2024
Xiaoming Li, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Zi Cheng, Beijing TA Law Firm
Meixin Du, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Standard-essential patents (SEPs) are specific types of patents that protect the technology incorporated in a standard. China has one of the world’s largest telecommunication markets, and its legal policies and practices regarding SEP protection profoundly influence the competitive environment of the Chinese telecommunication market, international economic and trade cooperation, and global telecommunication technology innovation.
Posted on Wed, Jun 19, 2024
Yu Mou, University of London
Fundraising fraud is one of the most serious and complicated financial crimes in China. It has an intertwined relationship with a regulatory offence, known as illegally taking in deposits from the general public (ITIDFGP). In judicial practice, ITIDFGP works as the downgraded form of fundraising fraud. This article explores why fundraising fraud is identified as financial fraud whereas ITIDFGP is a regulatory offence.
Evolution of Intangible Property to Crypto-Assets
Posted on Tue, Jun 18, 2024
Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, Australian National University
The emergence of crypto-assets posed significant challenges to property law across various legal systems. The integration of these intangible assets into property law frameworks proves complicated for many civil law jurisdictions, which tend to adhere to dogmatic approaches. In contrast, Anglo-American common law and Chinese civil law systems, despite their divergent origins, have exhibited legally pragmatic responses to intangible property, including crypto-assets.
Leveraging E-commerce Platforms to Improve Court Enforcement
Posted on Tue, Jun 18, 2024
Guangyu Cao, Peking University
Hai Ding, Peking University
Li-An Zhou, Peking University
Judicial auctions of assets are critical for enforcing court judgments but typically suffer from low success rates. Leveraging China's recent initiative to utilize E-commerce platforms for judicial auctions, this paper investigates the impact of digital technologies on auction outcomes and the functioning of judicial branches.
Embedded Supervision: China’s Prosecutorial Public Interest Litigation against Government
Posted on Mon, Jun 17, 2024
Yueduan Wang, Peking University
A commonly held view maintains that diminished autonomy substantially weakens the capacity of legal institutions to challenge state entities, particularly in authoritarian contexts. This study offers an alternative perspective through an empirical analysis of China’s recent implementation of prosecutor-led public interest litigation against state agencies. It suggests that integration within an authoritarian framework might, at least temporarily, enhance the leverage of justice institutions over state entities that violate laws. Nonetheless, this political integration concurrently constrains the capacity for such legal initiatives to challenge the discretionary power of upper-tier or more powerful agencies.
China and the Non-weaponization of Outer Space
Posted on Mon, Jun 17, 2024
Matthias Vanhullebusch, Hasselt University
This chapter examines China’s differential approach vis-à-vis developing and developed countries in advancing its normative agenda on non-weaponization in outer space before the Conference on Disarmament and the UN General Assembly. China has gained the majority support of developing countries for its agenda – increasing its international legitimacy in their eyes. Conversely, China has yet to gain the trust of technologically advanced nations in order to give its future regulatory framework governing peaceful relationships in outer space its much-needed normativity.
How Credible are China’s Foreign Policy Signals? IR Theory and the Debate about China's Intentions
Posted on Fri, Jun 14, 2024
Brandon Yoder, University of Virginia
Scholars and policymakers currently lack systematic criteria for determining the credibility of China's foreign policy signals, which has produced widely divergent conclusions about its likely intentions. Drawing on theoretical scholarship on signaling and credibility in IR, this paper introduces general deductive criteria for assigning credibility to a rising state's foreign policy signals. It then applies these criteria to evaluate the specific Chinese signals that optimists and pessimists have cited in support of their respective positions.
Posted on Fri, Jun 14, 2024
Mohamad Zreik, Sun Yat-sen University
This research focuses on China, exploring the relationship between competition law and sustainable development within the context of rapid economic growth. It specifically examines how China's competition law and policies interact with selected SDGs. The study employs a qualitative approach, incorporating a systematic review of literature, legislative actions, and empirical data. The study also examines how competition laws can contribute to societal objectives beyond economic growth.
Historicizing Internet Regulation in China: A Meta-analysis of Chinese Internet Policies (1994-2017)
Posted on Thu, Jun 13, 2024
Min Jiang, University of North Carolina
Weishan Miao, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The authors created the first comprehensive database of national-level Chinese Internet laws and policies between 1994 and 2017 and conducted a meta-analysis of 358 policy documents using content analysis and social network analysis. This study contributes to debates on three core issues in Internet governance from a Chinese perspective: Who (should) regulate the Internet? What issues (should) fall under regulatory oversight? And how should the Internet be regulated via what mechanisms?
Regulation of Digital Platforms and the State's Use of Platform Technologies in China
Posted on Thu, Jun 13, 2024
Jens Prufer, Tilburg University
Inge Graef, Tilburg University
Doh-Shin Jeon, Toulouse School of Economics
This report takes stock of China's current state of digital platform markets and regulation of platform technologies (AI and data analytics). It also offers a view on the current use of platform technologies by the Chinese government and the CCP, including Social Credit Systems and the surveillance state. Based on these insights, the authors identify key challenges for EU policymakers and formulate crucial questions for future research.
Selected Chinese Cases on the UN Sales Convention (CISG) Vol. 3
Posted on Wed, Jun 12, 2024
Peng Guo, Swinburne University of Technology
Haicong Zuo, University of International Business and Economics
Shu Zhang, Deakin University
This book series intends to provide a comprehensive and systemic analysis of Chinese cases on the CISG to show international legal scholars and practitioners not only the judicial interpretation and application of the CISG in China but also the scholastic understandings of and approaches to it. Another aim of the series is to identify whether there is a special Chinese approach to the interpretation and application of the CISG.
A Right to an Explanation of Algorithmic Decision-Making in China
Posted on Wed, Jun 12, 2024
Hong Wu, NingboTech University
This article is the first to critically analyze China's unique legislative approach on the right to explanation, which distinguishes between the public and private law scenarios. It argues that the differences in objects and goals between public and private law jurisprudence make it impossible to design a right to explanation that is uniformly applicable.
Posted on Tue, Jun 11, 2024
Matthew S. Erie, University of Oxford
Ching-Fu Lin, National Tsing Hua University
What happens when Western law is no longer the default referent for legal modernity? This is a deceptively simple question, but its implications are potentially significant for such fields as comparative law, law and development, and international law. “Inter-Asian Law” (IAL) points to an emerging field of comparative law that explores the legal interactions—historical and contemporary—between and among Asian jurisdictions.
Is Antitrust Enforcement Effective in China? Evidence from SAMR v. Alibaba
Posted on Tue, Jun 11, 2024
Kenneth Khoo, National University of Singapore
Sinchit Lai, City University of Hong Kong
Tian Chuyue, National University of Singapore
This article explores the effectiveness of antitrust enforcement in China by examining the landmark decision of SAMR v. Alibaba (2021) through an event study methodology. The results suggest that antitrust enforcement in China may rely more on non-pecuniary sanctions than financial penalties, challenging the notion that there is under-enforcement in this area.
Campaign-style Law Enforcement in China: Causes and Consequences
Posted on Mon, Jun 10, 2024
Jingyi Wang, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Peng Wang, The University of Hong Kong
This article aims to address two primary research questions: first, why does the Chinese government consistently favour campaign-style law enforcement, and second, what are the consequences of this law enforcement approach for China’s criminal justice system? This article offers both top-down and bottom-up explanations regarding the government's persistent employment of campaign-style law enforcement to tackle serious and organised crime, and illustrates its implications on the criminal justice system.
Reframing International Law: The China Strategy?
Posted on Mon, Jun 10, 2024
Karen J. Alter, Northwestern University
This essay engages international relations (IR), legal sociology, and transnational legal order theory (TLO) to examine what it would take for China to reframe international law (IL). Alter argues that only constructivist change can accomplish the larger goal of a redefinition of IL as the West knows it. The analysis of China's efforts, and what it would take for them to succeed, implicitly identifies the role of scholars in aiding or resisting such efforts.
Posted on Fri, Jun 7, 2024
Angela Huyue Zhang, The University of Hong Kong
S. Alex Yang, London Business School
OpenAI's newest artificial-intelligence tool, GPT-4o, leverages a large and growing user base – drawn in by the promise that the service is free – to crowdsource massive amounts of multimodal data and use it to train its AI model. But much of the data is not owned by its users, and copyright holders will have little recourse.
The Chinese Conception of Cybersecurity
Posted on Fri, Jun 7, 2024
Rogier Creemers, Leiden University
How does the Chinese government define cybersecurity? The Chinese conception of this term is different from the Western one, and is embedded within the country’s distinctive political, economic and technological context. Drawing on Chinese government documents, this paper will trace the evolution of how successive generations of Chinese leaders have identified digital security concerns, and how they have deployed institutional, regulatory and policy tools to respond to them.
The State of AI Safety in China Spring 2024 Report
Posted on Thu, Jun 6, 2024
Concordia AI
This Report explains developments of AI safety in China over the past 6 months across 6 domains: technical safety research, international governance, domestic governance, lab and industry governance, expert views on AI risks, and public opinion on AI.
Chinese Legality: Ideology, Law, and Institutions
Posted on Thu, Jun 6, 2024
Shiping Hua, University of Louisville
This book discusses how Chinese legality in the Xi era is defined from a theoretical, ideological, historical, and cultural point of view. It examines how legality is reflected and embodied in laws and constitutions, and how legality is realized through institutions, with particular focus on how the CCP interacts with the legislature, the judiciary, the procuratorate, and the police.
Posted on Wed, Jun 5, 2024
Mingyan Nie, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Yuan Shen, Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH
The authors first outline the recent development of China’s autonomous vehicles (AVs) industry and policies released by relevant government agencies to promote its growth. The central and local government rules about AVs road testing and demonstration application are analyzed thereafter. The commercialization of AVs is still in its infancy in China, and a comprehensive legal framework has not yet been formulated. Lastly, the authors discuss the attribution of liability induced by AVs of different levels under China’s existing laws and regulations.
China's Response to US Calls for Decoupling: The Foreign Investment Law of 2020
Posted on Wed, Jun 5, 2024
Daniel Chow, Ohio State University
US calls for decoupling from China by repatriating US business operations in China to the US and eschewing new investments in China have been met by China with a powerful response: the 2020 Foreign Investment Law (FIL). While China still has a restrictive investment climate by US standards, the FIL represents a significant improvement of the investment climate and is a signal of China’s willingness to consider additional reforms. The FIL might create incentives for some US companies to ignore calls to decouple and to continue to establish new business operations in China.
Contemporary Export Control Law of China
Posted on Tue, Jun 4, 2024
Deming Zhao, Global Law Office
Export Control Law in China has been born with the notion of protection of national security and interest as well as non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their carrying vehicles, along with the process of China’s confronting the abuses against the nation by relevant countries, the US in particular. Understandably ECL has a defensive or countering posture. At the same time, ECL reflects the persistent position of China to maintain the multilateral non-proliferation mechanism and exhibits the basic attitude of China as a responsible big nuclear State committed to international obligations.
China and the Investment Treaty Regime: Rule Taker or Rule Maker?
Posted on Tue, Jun 4, 2024
Sheng Zhang, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Since its first bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with Sweden in 1982, China has signed BITs with more than 130 countries. Indeed, China’s practice in international investment law is also a microcosm of China's participation in general international law. When signing BITs, China mainly follows the template or style as set by western countries. Yet with the development of China’s economic growth, China is more willing to establish its own approach toward the investment treaties.
Contracts, Inequality and the State: Contract Law Ultra-heterodoxy in China
Posted on Mon, Jun 3, 2024
Weitseng Chen, National University of Singapore
This paper examines the role of contract law in tackling inequality unveiled by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on China, where courts seem to have made the most drastic moves. Whether contract law has any role to play in addressing economic inequality is the focal point of a long-lasting debate among contract law scholars. The author finds that neither orthodox nor heterodox approaches can explain Chinese courts’ drastic approach to dealing with inequality. Chinese courts have gone further to espouse what the author terms “ultra-heterodoxy” to denote the greater latitude they enjoy in deciding cases that impact inequality.
Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Firm Innovation
Posted on Mon, Jun 3, 2024
Bochuan Dai, Central South University
Zichao Ma, Tsinghua University
Tao Shen, Tsinghua University
The authors examine the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on local private firm innovation. This paper highlights the importance of proximity and accessibility to local patent dispute jurisdiction for promoting private firm innovation in China.
The Court as a Policy Information Discoverer: Evidence from China’s Emerging Industries
Posted on Fri, May 31, 2024
Tianhao Chen, Tsinghua University
Wei Xu, Tsinghua University
Jing Zhao, Tsinghua University
This paper delves into the pivotal role that courts play in shaping public policy, particularly in the context of burgeoning industries. It shifts the focus from Constitutional and Supreme Courts to the significant, yet often unnoticed, role of local courts. It proposes that these local courts are uniquely positioned to act as discoverers of vital information for public policy, especially critical in the fast-paced arena of emerging industries where policymakers often lack comprehensive information.
How Should Modern Corporate Law Respond to Technological Challenges?
Posted on Fri, May 31, 2024
Chen Wang, University of California, Berkeley
Xu Ke, Renmin University of China
This article explores the potential interplay between cutting-edge technologies, such as distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence, and corporate law. It examines whether these advancements necessitate a fundamental restructuring of core corporate law doctrines. The article then delves into specific aspects of corporate law, with a comparative analysis of Chinese and US corporate and securities laws and regulations. The article proposes innovative approaches to developing the future corporate law.
Talk: Tackling Cyberbullying – China’s Law and Policy Initiatives in Recent Years (Jun 20 2024)
Posted on Thu, May 30, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
Cyberbullying has long been a common phenomenon in China. These online abuses have not been specifically addressed by the government. Most victims of cyberbullying can only resort to bringing civil lawsuits. But legal remedies are meagre and cannot stop further incidents. Things took a sudden turn in the past couple of years after several tragedies. The authorities were under new pressure to act. Policy documents and a draft legislation addressing cyberbullying were announced. This talk will examine several high-profile cyberbullying cases in China, the trend of cyberbullying over the years, and whether the new regulatory and legal measures can be effective.
Date & Time: June 20, 2024 (Thu), 13:00-14:00
Venue: Room 723, 7/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU
Judicial Reform and Privatization of State-owned Enterprises
Posted on Thu, May 30, 2024
James Si Zeng, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Given the widely held belief that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are inefficient, scholars have long been interested in the determinants of privatization. However, current studies have largely focused on political, political economy, or economic determinants for privatization. This article examines whether judicial independence affects the extent of privatization by utilizing a reform that has been gradually implemented in China since 2014, which removes local governments’ authority over the financial and personnel decisions of local courts, resulting in a significant enhancement of the independence of these courts.
Posted on Wed, May 29, 2024
Peter Chan, City University of Hong Kong
Wanqiang Wu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate has shifted its traditional case quality assessment model of “Line Appraisal” to a new system with the “Case-Process Ratio” as the pivotal metric in 2020. This article analyses the latest case quality assessment system and the changing role of China’s prosecutors based on two appraisal documents from the SPP regarding the “Case-Process Ratio” reform and two provincial performance evaluation documents.
Oriental Despotism Inside Out: On the Global Travels of Montesquieu’s De l’esprit des lois
Posted on Wed, May 29, 2024
Teemu Ruskola, University of Pennsylvania
This speculative essay analyzes Montesquieu’s comparative method in his De l’esprit des lois (1748) and its contemporary legacies. It takes as its focus his theory of Oriental despotism. The author discusses Montesquieu’s use of China as a paradigmatic instance of Oriental despotism. However, Montesquieu himself is forced to admit that in several key respects China does not fit the category it supposedly exemplifies. The author concludes by examining the geopolitical implications of Montesquieu’s analysis with respect to the discourse of Chinese authoritarianism today.
The Chinese Balloon Incident and Partisanism in International Law
Posted on Tue, May 28, 2024
Samuli Seppänen, Chinese University of Hong Kong
This Article discusses the implications of the February 2023 Chinese balloon incident for understanding Chinese foreign policy elites’ approaches to international law. It argues that the Chinese balloon incident fits the perception of a globally ambitious and activist China. At the same time, the ethically ambiguous context of foreign surveillance flights problematizes the stark dichotomies between authoritarian and liberal approaches to international law.
Systemic Convictions: China’s Fundraising Crimes and its Financial System
Posted on Tue, May 28, 2024
Daniel Sprick, University of Cologne
Fundraising crimes are legion in China. The unclear demarcation of these crimes produces legal uncertainty that has its root cause not only in vague provisions of the Criminal Law or broad legal interpretations of the judiciary, but also in the systemic function of these crimes. This paper argues that normative analyses about legal (un)certainty and regulatory necessities in the field of illegal fundraising in China need to be widened and additionally include a perspective of political expediency.
China's Foreign State Immunity Law: A View from the United States
Posted on Mon, May 27, 2024
William S. Dodge, University of California, Davis
On September 1, 2023, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress promulgated the Foreign State Immunity Law (FSIL) of the People's Republic of China, which adopts the restrictive theory of foreign state immunity. This article has two goals. First, the article introduces China's FSIL to English language readers by explaining its provisions in some detail. Second, the article provides a U.S. perspective on the FSIL by comparing it to the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and discussing the U.S. experience with foreign state immunity.
Transparency and Authoritarian Rule of Law: Mixed Effects of Open Government Information in China
Posted on Mon, May 27, 2024
Handi Li, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
Many authoritarian countries have adopted transparency laws in the 21st century. Do such initiatives actually monitor government behavior and protect citizens’ rights in these countries? Existing literature indicates that authoritarian leaders monitor and regulate their agents through institutional challenges from citizens. This study examines whether central transparency mandates can mobilize these challenges and how successful the challenges can be. The author analyzes two original datasets in China using a difference-in-differences design based on a transparency pilot program.
Application of Forum Non Conveniens in Chinese Court
Posted on Fri, May 24, 2024
Jianli Song, Supreme Court of the PRC
Bing Cheng, King & Wood Mallesons
The doctrine of forum non conveniens generally refers to a system in which a competent domestic court finds that the trial of the case is more convenient and fair by another foreign court with jurisdiction after accepting the case, and thereby refuses to exercise jurisdiction or conditionally suspends its own jurisdiction.
Justice and Law at the (1980) Chinese Movies
Posted on Fri, May 24, 2024
Alison W. Conner, University of Hawaii
This essay analyzes two of the most famous examples of Chinese “scar cinema,” movies that depicted the harsh realities of the political and cultural campaigns of the Cultural Revolution and the terrible suffering they caused. Though very different in story and style, Xie Jin's Legend of Tianyun Mountain and Wu Yonggang’s Evening Rain constitute works which, in addition to their individual stylistic achievements, feature ideas of justice and even of law that remain relevant to China today.
Situating Chinese Engagement in Internet Governance
Posted on Thu, May 23, 2024
Riccardo Nanni, Fondazione Bruno Kessler
This chapter provides a short overview of China’s domestic digital ecosystem, which is necessary to gauge its complexity and discard simplistic views depicting China, its government, and its companies as a monolithic whole controlled by the Communist Party. Through literature and the first-hand analysis of legal and policy documents, three historical phases are identified and addressed in the development of China’s domestic digital policies. This chapter provides the domestic historical background to better interpret Chinese stakeholders’ engagement with global Internet governance.
Sorting Citizens: Governing via China's Social Credit System
Posted on Thu, May 23, 2024
Rui Hou, University of Toronto
Diana Fu, University of Toronto
China's social credit system can be examined as a governance tool which sorts citizenship behaviors into trustworthy and untrustworthy categories as part of the regime's long-standing effort to cultivate a loyal citizenry. Based on a data set comprised of central-level official documents, national model citizen lists, and media reports, this study qualitatively examines how the Chinese state constructs “good” and “bad” citizen ideal types.
Call for Papers: 2024 CIBEL Global Network Conference and Young Scholars Workshop (Nov 20-21, 2024)
Posted on Wed, May 22, 2024
China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, University of New South Wales
This year’s theme will be on Restoring Global Supply Chains: From Regulatory Divergence to Connectivity and Coherence. Bringing together researchers, policymakers, and businesses, our event aims to discuss policies and regulatory frameworks developed by governments domestically and internationally, the interaction between regulatory actions and business strategies, the challenges associated with regulatory divergence, the impact on global supply chains, and steps that have been or can be taken to pursue regulatory connectivity and coherence including through bilateral, regional and international cooperation. [Due date for proposal submission: Jul 22, 2024]
Connotation and Characteristics of Chinese Rule of Law Path
Posted on Wed, May 22, 2024
Xiaobo Dong, Nanjing Normal University
Jie Guo, Nanjing Normal University
Chinese rule of law path embodies profound historical connotations, reflects the distinct socialist nature, mirrors the objective laws of the process of rule of law modernization, and verifies the inherent character of the development of the rule of law. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, especially in the more than 40 years of reform and opening up, the arduous practice of exploring a new path to the modernization of the rule of law with Chinese characteristics has historically formed the overall characteristics of the Chinese rule of law path.
The Unintended Consequence of Environmental Regulation
Posted on Fri, May 17, 2024
Hao Gao et al., Tsinghua University
This paper aims to reveal whether implementing stricter environmental regulation will generate unintended effect on corporate decision. Employing the enforcement of China’s New Environmental Protection Law as an exogenous shock, our results show that firms belonging to polluting industries manipulate discretionary accruals upward to smooth the heightened compliance costs. Furthermore, corporate earnings management induced by environmental regulation compromise firms’ future growth without improving corporate environmental performance.
Cross-Border Data Flow in China: Shifting from Restriction to Relaxation?
Posted on Fri, May 17, 2024
Shuai Guo, China University of Political Science and Law
Xiang Li, 21st Century of China Research Center
In recent years, contrary to the general international perception that China imposes strict restrictions especially due to national security concerns, China is de facto relaxing its regulation on cross-border data flow especially for digital trade. This article suggests three underlying incentives. It further submits that this paradigm shift would has two main implications: first, due to economic reasons, the international trend of freeing cross-border data flow would be joined by China and others. Second, a catalogue-based security review would be interesting for all countries that intend to balance free flow of information vis-à-vis national security.
Book: The Role of Law in China’s Economic Development, 1978–2011
Posted on Thu, May 16, 2024
Jia Hu, Goethe University Frankfurt
This book concerns how China's legal institutions promoted its economic growth and demonstrates that the law has played different roles at various stages of China's economic transformation, a signal of legal paradigm shifts in reaction to the changing political and economic pursuits.
China-made National Security Law Applied in Hong Kong’s Common Law Courts
Posted on Thu, May 16, 2024
Guobin Zhu, City University of Hong Kong
Shiling Xiao, City University of Hong Kong
The Chinese legislature enacted the National Security Law on 30 June 2020 to be applied in Hong Kong. This article compares the texts between the NSL and relevant Chinese Mainland law and identifies four ways in which the Chinese legislative provisions and legal elements have been incorporated into the NSL. This suggests that completely disregarding Chinese laws in Hong Kong judicial proceedings may not be feasible and advisable in some cases for interpreting and applying this specific made-in-China law.
Posted on Wed, May 15, 2024
Morgana Mo Zhou and others, City University of Hong Kong
The PIPL was implemented in November 2021. However, the impact and existing shortcomings of the PIPL remain unclear, carrying significant implications for policymakers. This study examined privacy policies on 13 online platforms before and after the PIPL. Concurrently, it conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 Chinese Internet users to assess their perceptions of the PIPL. Users were also given tasks to identify non-compliance within the platforms, assessing their ability to address related privacy concerns effectively.
Olson in China: Regional Chamber of Commerce, Political Brokers, and Firm Subsidies
Posted on Wed, May 15, 2024
Zeren Li, National University of Singapore
Shenghua Lu, Zhejiang University
Selective incentives are a crucial mechanism for preventing the free-rider problem in Olson’s theory of collective action. This study analyzes the selective incentives offered by business interest groups in China. The authors demonstrate that the selective benefits provided by business associations include access to political leaders. These associations act as brokers, connecting member firms with powerful officials who offer particularistic benefits.
Rights in China: Myths, Abuses, and Politics
Posted on Tue, May 14, 2024
Sida Liu, The University of Hong Kong
Sitao Li, University of Toronto
This article presents a sociological perspective on understanding rights in China, examining the interplay between multiple myths of rights, rights abuses, and the politics of rights within various social and physical spaces. It highlights competing myths of rights held by the state, ordinary citizens, rights activists, and legal professionals. The article examines how rights abuses contribute to rights consciousness and mobilization across different human rights domains in a particular political context. By analyzing the politics of rights in interconnected spaces, it emphasizes the importance of continuous engagement between domestic and overseas actors in shaping China’s human rights future.
Highlights: Will the EU's AI Act Have a 'Brussels Effect' on China?
Posted on Tue, May 14, 2024
Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
On April 26, 2024, the second session of our “Generative AI Governance Summit Dialogue” series was successfully held, which centered on the EU AI Act and China’s AI legislative initiatives. The event was conducted as a Zoom roundtable and livestreamed on four popular platforms: PKULaw, XiaoeTech, Bilibili, and WeChat, attracting nearly 6000 online viewers. The lively atmosphere and engaging discussion were highly appreciated and praised by the audience. We offer a synopsis of the dialogue to encourage further discussions on AI governance in the future.
Posted on Mon, May 13, 2024
Qisong He, East China University of Political Science and Law
China has attempted to build a law-based order in the emerging strategic space competition that is distinct from the US rules-based order. This article examines China’s law-based order and compares it with the US rules-based order. The article also explores how China has competed with the US in the reconstruction of the order in space and the consequences of this competition.
Talk: China's Path to Establishing Rule of Law (May 28, 2024)
Posted on Mon, May 13, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
This lecture will review and summarize the pivotal moments and distinctive features of China’s legal development history. Professor Jianyong Li will highlight the accomplishments made by mainland China in its pursuit of the rule of law. Additionally, he will discuss the prevalent issues and shortcomings, and offer valuable insights into the future prospects of the rule of law in China.
Date & Time: May 28, 2024 (Tuesday) 12:00 – 14:05
Venue: Room 723, 7/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU (Live via Zoom)
Online Trials in China: Legal and Institutional Approaches During Different Stages of the Pandemic
Posted on Fri, May 10, 2024
Chi Zhang, Peking University
Zhewei Liu, Peking University
China has set off a wave of legal and institutional approaches to meet the need of access to justice and rule of law in cyberspace. Online trials and Internet courts as the approaches have not been developed so rapidly until the outbreak of COVID-19. This article will divide the development of online trials in China into three stages and discuss their functions and orientations during different times of the pandemic.
Fairness in Chinese Contract Law: A Borrowed Mistake
Posted on Fri, May 10, 2024
Hao Jiang, Tulane University
James Gordley, Tulane University
Chinese law on contractual fairness has recently been modified to resemble that of the US and Europe. For a contract to be invalid, there must be both substantive and procedural unfairness. Substantive unfairness contradicts the will theories which were concerned only with what the parties willed and not with what is fair. Requiring procedural unfairness is an attempt to salvage an element of these theories by suggesting that the reason for giving relief is some defect in the will such as a failure in the bargaining process. It fails to account for what is really at stake. The result is an incoherence in doctrine which China imported from the West. Chinese law would have been better off on its own.
China's Path to Establishing Rule of Law
Posted on Thu, May 9, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
Professor Jianyong Li will highlight the accomplishments made by mainland China in its pursuit of the rule of law, starting with the reform and opening up and with special focus on the progress made since 1997. Additionally, he will discuss the prevalent issues and shortcomings, and offer valuable insights into the future prospects of the rule of law in China.
Date & Time: May 28, 2024 (Tuesday) 12:00 – 14:05
Venue: Room 723, 7/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU (Live via Zoom)
China’s Legal Efforts to Facilitate Cross-border Data Transfers: A Comprehensive Reality Check
Posted on Thu, May 9, 2024
Fengan Jiang, China University of Political Science and Law
In the past, the Chinese government mainly focused on the issue of national security and thus created a security assessment mechanism for cross-border data flows (CBDFs) with broad coverage. It is about time for China to reconsider its data governance regime based on a balanced approach. Various initiatives to facilitate CBDF have thus been started in so-called pilot free trade zones (FTZs) and special administrative regions (SARs). The good practice in FTZs would help formulate nationwide rules.
Posted on Wed, May 8, 2024
Jyh-An Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Peng Zhou, Chinese University of Hong Kong
This chapter introduces China’s legal framework regulating facial recognition technology (FRT) and analyzes the underlying problems. Although current laws and regulations have restricted the deployment of FRT under some circumstances, these restrictions may function poorly when the technology is installed by the government or deployed for the purpose of protecting public security. Based on case studies and evaluation of relevant rules, this chapter explains why China has developed this distinctive asymmetric regulatory model towards FRT specifically and personal data generally.
Posted on Wed, May 8, 2024
Guan Zheng, Zhejiang University
Jinchun Shu, Zhejiang University
This article provides a critical analysis of the China's legal framework of children's personal information protection in the digital era. It demonstrates that Chinese lawmakers adopt a dual-protection paradigm consisting of data privacy law and family law to protect children’s personal information. This results in severe restrictions on children's freedom of expression and access to information, along with their evolving capacities, while depriving parents of the right to the custody of their children. This article argues that different legal frameworks should be adopted for different age groups of children to protect the best interest of the child.
Posted on Tue, May 7, 2024
Sui To Godfrey Ng, University College London
This paper aims to explore the possibilities of future cooperation on mutual recognition and enforcement of money judgments between China and the US by comparing relevant legal systems, case law, and commentaries. Evidence suggests that there will generally be little pushback for Chinese courts to find theoretical reciprocity and subsequently recognize and enforce US judgments. Harmonization between the two legal systems has been the trend and remains the most feasible and appropriate approach to facilitate the recognition and enforcing of money judgments among the two countries in the foreseeable future.
Posted on Tue, May 7, 2024
Xinyu Huang, Yale University
This paper provides a detailed exploration of the sale of offices in China and France in the 17th and 18th centuries. In France, the sale of offices became deeply integrated into the officialdom, effectively serving as a formal institution. However, this practice led to public dissatisfaction due to concerns about the fairness of the judicial system. Conversely, in China, the sale of offices was considered an ad hoc, informal, and pragmatic solution to financial emergencies. The sale of offices, in a different context, was seen as having both positive and negative aspects, with its impact varying, depending on the specific function it served.
Land Reform and Illegal Adoption of Children
Posted on Mon, May 6, 2024
Yu Bai, Tohoku University
Yanjun Li, Tohoku University
Masaki Nakabayashi, University of Tokyo
The paper investigates how China's land reform during 1978–1984 derived demand for children beyond the one-child policy's birth quota, leading to increased illegal adoption of abandoned or abducted children, particularly boys. Following the reform, transitioning land rights from collective to individual households granted them decision-making authority and full residual income from the land. This quasi-property rights shock weakened clan influence, which traditionally valued bloodline, catalyzing a societal shift in family concepts.
Posted on Mon, May 6, 2024
Yile Wang, Sichuan University
Yuhan Wang, Sichuan University
Haiyue Liu, Sichuan University
Based on the Fraud Triangle Theory and Legitimacy Theory, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of political supervision in optimizing corporate governance. Focusing on the enhancement of the status and functions of the Commission for Discipline Inspection in Chinese SOEs through supervision system reforms, the authors posit the fundamental hypothesis that state ownership’s monitoring role enhances internal governance. This study fundamentally contributes to the theoretical exploration of institutional factors influencing internal governance within firms.
Establishing Law in Context: An Insider's Perspective
Posted on Fri, May 3, 2024
Francis Snyder, Peking University
The Law in Context Movement was a revolution in legal studies. This blog traces its origins and development from the 1990s till today and outlines various contributions to law teaching and research, such as the International Workshop of Young Scholars (WISH) , the ELJ from 1995 to 2014 and today's journal published by Cambridge University Press, European Law Open.
Authoritarian Legality with Chinese Characteristics
Posted on Fri, May 3, 2024
Kwai Hang Ng, University of California, San Diego
The concept of authoritarianism has risen to prominence in the community of legal scholars studying non-democratic regimes. China’s legality is also described as authoritarian. However, what does it mean to label China as having a system of authoritarian law? The concept of authoritarianism, and by extension, authoritarian legality, is yet underexamined. This article discusses how China, as a single-party state, differs from other authoritarian regimes in developing its own brand of authoritarian legality that the author describes as “legal gradationalism.”
Angela Huyue Zhang on Why Beijing Took On the Tech Giants
Posted on Thu, May 2, 2024
Eliot Chen, The Wire China
Angela Huyue Zhang is the author of High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, a highly acclaimed book that absorbs all that happened during China’s 2020–2022 tech crackdown to explain how the government there regulates its tech sector. In this lightly edited Q&A, Angela Huyue Zhang spoke with Eliot Chen about when and why Beijing’s attitude towards China’s big tech darlings changed, how the relationship between regulators and companies has developed in the aftermath of the crackdown, and what all this means for China’s artificial intelligence industry.
Actions and Motives of Interactions between Regulators and Firms in Fintech Policy Making in China
Posted on Thu, May 2, 2024
Yan Xu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Zhongren Zhao, Shantou University
Through purposive sampling and snowball sampling, coupled with semi-structured in-depth interviews with key figures from some local regulators and focal firms in the Fintech sector, this study intends to systematically describe the relations between the regulators and firms as mutual engines in policy making in China’s Fintech sector for the first time. The result shows that Co-production of knowledge, Framing of co-benefits, Provision of capacity, Engagement of experts, and Legitimacy of regulatory authority are the five primary motives of interactions between Fintech regulators and firms.
Empowering through Courts: Court Capture and Municipal Financing in China
Posted on Tue, Apr. 30, 2024
Jiayin Hu, Peking University
Wenwei Peng, Harvard University
Yang Su, Chinese University of Hong Kong
This paper shows that alleviating court capture by local governments can inadvertently undermine local governments’ borrowing capacity. By exploiting the staggered roll-out of a judicial organizational reform that aims to alleviate local court capture in China, this paper finds that alleviating court capture can reduce judicial bias favoring local governments. Since the majority of government lawsuits involve contractors and suppliers rather than creditors, creditors are inadvertently disadvantaged, leading to higher government borrowing costs, lower borrowing capacity, and reduced spending. This effect occurs despite the fact that contractors and suppliers respond by offering slightly lower prices ex ante.
Construction of Model Contract Law for Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin
Posted on Tue, Apr. 30, 2024
Man Teng Iong, University of Macau
The Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin has emerged as a pivotal economic hub. This article delves into a comparative study of contract laws between the People’s Republic of China and Macao. Analyzing key facets such as pacta sunt servanda, freedom of contract, principle of equity, contract form, principles of interpretation, and termination of contract, the study identifies nuanced differences. Recognizing the imperative of aligning contract laws for the Intensive Cooperation Zone’s development, the article advocates for a unified legal environment.
Damages Per Share in Securities Litigation: A Comparison of Chinese and US Systems
Posted on Mon, Apr. 29, 2024
Timothy J McKenna, NERA Economic Consulting
In late 2021, the Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou awarded damages totaling RMB 2.46 billion to investors in Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. This article compares the methodology used by the Court to compute damages with the methodology typically used in securities litigation in the US. The Court’s method is not centered on what can be directly observed about the impact of the fraud. As such, if the goal is to compensate investors solely for their losses due to the fraud, the method used by the Court is not as accurate as the method used in the US.
Hong Kong Matrimonial Finance Law – Enamoured by Big Banking?
Posted on Mon, Apr. 29, 2024
Alexander Clevewood Ng, University College London
This article critiques the recent Hong Kong District Court decision of Shanghai Commercial Bank v Lee Yau Tak due to its application of an erroneous approach in operating the common intention constructive trust in situations concerning matrimonial finance. It highlights the increasing role of commerciality in similar cases and evaluates whether, despite being overruled by the Hong Kong Court of Appeal, this would have major societal implications.
The Limits of Liberal Justice: On Authoritarianism and Instrumental Theories of Law
Posted on Fri, Apr. 26, 2024
Teemu Ruskola, University of Pennsylvania
This paper uses Sucheng Wang’s book Law as an Instrument as a point of departure for reconsidering the conventional opposition between liberal and authoritarian forms of legality. This opposition is embedded in an even more elemental distinction between different state forms. The author first investigates the historical and geopolitical processes by which modern political theory reduced the political universe into three (then two) species of states. He then turns to the contemporary genealogy of the concept of rule of law. The paper concludes by focusing on the China to evaluate the utility of assessing its legal order in terms of authoritarian legality as well as in terms of democracy more generally.
Competition Law Response to Platform’s Banning Behavior: Rethinking EU and China’s Solution
Posted on Fri, Apr. 26, 2024
Hechen Wang, China University of Political Science and Law
Banning behavior is the most prevalent and potent method for platforms to build up high walls to prevent competitors. A thorough understanding of the implications of banning behavior and an evaluation of its competitive harm are prerequisites for competition law intervention. The EU DMA and China’s competition law exemplify two different legislative strategies to tackle platform banning behaviors, and neither is flawless. Reflecting on these approaches and their potential impacts can provide valuable insights for future competition laws regulating banning behaviors.
Analysis of Legal Framework for Investment in Africa by Chinese Firms and Government
Posted on Thu, Apr. 25, 2024
Nicholas Olwor, Kyambogo University
This study is based on enormous amount of Chinese investments in Uganda, with the objective of considering the legal aspects involved therein. Under international business law, commercial relations are usually ruled according to the law of the country hosting the investment. This study examined the legal regimes of Chinese investments in Uganda and the challenges presented by the Chinese investment in the country given that the systems of business law in Uganda are generally out of date and enforcement mechanisms under Western rule of law standards are often far from reality.
Pandemic Impact and Women's Resilience in China
Posted on Thu, Apr. 25, 2024
Xiaoqian Hu, University of Arizona
Yanliu Tao, Renmin University of China
Qichen Zhang, Renmin University of China
This chapter seeks to draw a macro image on gender and Covid-19 in China through a bricolage of snapshots including academic literature, national surveys, and two sets of in-depth interviews. Compared with men, women in China experienced more economic insecurity, heavier workload in the workplace and at home, and worse personal well-being during the pandemic. The impact fell disproportionately on women with less education, a lower economic status, a rural background, or childrearing obligations.
Toward a Postmetaphysical Approach to the Study of Chinese Law
Posted on Wed, Apr. 24, 2024
Xiaoqian Hu, University of Arizona
In a world where differences between the United States and China are increasingly amplified and weaponized, how can legal scholars study China fairly, insightfully, and constructively? To explore this question, the author contrasts two approaches to studying Chinese law: the “metaphysical approach” and the “postmetaphysical approach.” Although neither approach is wholly practiced or rejected by any real-world scholar, these ideal types help illustrate the different ways of seeing, knowing, and analyzing China.
Casting Gender Light on Authoritarian Legality in China
Posted on Wed, Apr. 24, 2024
Jue Jiang, University of London
This paper provides a rare yet much-needed gender perspective on authoritarian legality in China, drawing upon sentencing and punishment for the crime of rape. Four categories of cases were selected, based on four sexual relationships embodying various power dynamics between the offender and the victim: public official and citizen/sex worker; husband and wife; adult and child; caregiver and dependent. Based on empirical research, the author argues that the criminal justice system in China embodies and reinforces a particular gendered order and “sex hierarchy,” instrumentalized by the state to maintain its authoritarian power.
China’s Pragmatic Approach to International Human Rights Law
Posted on Tue, Apr. 23, 2024
Sida Liu, The University of Hong Kong
Yun Xian, The University of Hong Kong
Sitao Li, University of Toronto
This article argues that China has adopted a pragmatic approach to international human rights law in the early 21st century, characterized by three main features: (1) pragmatic experimentation in the appropriation and modification of human rights norms; (2) selective decoupling of international and domestic human rights rules; and (3) divergent enforcement in the legislative and practical responses to various human rights issue areas. Contrasting the normative approach of the United States, which closely links human rights to democracy and the rule of law, China’s pragmatic approach is defined not only by the prioritization of social and economic rights over civil and political rights, as frequently shown by its critics, but also by the flexible applications of human rights rules in its lawmaking and enforcement. This approach permits significant gaps between “law on the books” and “law in action,” as well as between domestic rules and international law.
Will the EU AI Act Have a “Brussels Effect” on China? (Apr 26 2024)
Posted on Tue, Apr. 23, 2024
Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
In March 2024, the European Parliament officially adopted the EU AI Act. Concurrently, leading Chinese legal scholars have proposed model AI laws and are actively seeking feedback from policymakers and industry experts across China. In light of these recent developments, the second session of our Generative AI Governance Summit Dialogue series will focus on the EU AI Act and explore whether it will have a “Brussels Effect” on China. Topics will include the scope of AI legislation, management of open-source models, the risk-based regulatory framework, oversight of highly impactful AI systems, and various practical implementation challenges.
Date & Time: April 26, 2024 (Friday), 21:00–22:15 (HKT), 09:00-10:15 (EDT)
Venue: Zoom Webinar (Chinese & English with simultaneous interpretation)
Asian Law Junior Scholars Workshop, August 22-23, 2024
Posted on Mon, Apr. 22, 2024
Yale Law School
Applications due by May 20, 2024
A group of scholars working on Asian Law have come together to organize a rotating workshop for prospective law teaching job market candidates who write in this field. The workshop seeks to aid junior scholars in their initial job searches by offering them an opportunity to present their research (including potential job market papers) on Asian law to peers, conference co-organizers, and invited senior scholars. It will also provide a roundtable conversation on the logistics of the job market, focusing specifically on the unique challenges that Asian law scholars tend to face.
This workshop invites advanced doctoral students, recent JD graduates, and VAPs/fellows who study some aspect of Asian law to apply to present their research at our inaugural workshop at Yale Law School on August 22-23, 2024. This in-person workshop is open exclusively to junior scholars who plan to go on the law teaching market at some point in the next three calendar years (2024-26). Successful applicants will receive funding for travel.
Applicants must submit a curriculum vitae with a list of references, a completed paper of comparable length and substance to usual job talk papers, and a short (200 words) description of their expected job search timeline. Application materials are due by May 20, 2024 by email attachment to asianlawworkshop@gmail.com.
The co-organizers listed below together constitute the selection committee. Applicants will be notified by early June of decision on selection.
Jacques deLisle (UPenn)
Mark Jia (Georgetown)
Ji Li (UC Irvine)
Shitong Qiao (Duke)
Mark Wu (Harvard)
Angela Huyue Zhang (USC, starting from Fall 2024)
Taisu Zhang (Yale, current host)
“Intelligent Justice”: Human-centered Considerations in China’s Legal AI Transformation
Posted on Fri, Apr. 19, 2024
Nyu Wang, Virginia Tech
Michael Yuan Tian, Virginia Tech
In recent years, the Chinese government and its judiciary have made a policy decision to leverage AI in broader judicial reform efforts. The push to use AI to such a large extent in the judiciary is unique to China, influenced by chronic challenges facing the courts, including an exponential increase in casework and a shortage of qualified professionals in the judiciary. This piece briefly summarizes the current landscape of China’s technology-driven judicial reform and highlights a number of key considerations that the authors believe are pivotal to whether China’s investment in AI will succeed in improving the efficiency and legitimacy of the courts.
Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China
Posted on Fri, Apr. 19, 2024
Amitav Acharya, American University
Daniel A. Bell, The University of Hong Kong
Rajeev Bhargava, Parekh Institute of Indian Thought
Xuetong Yan, Tsinghua University
The rise of China and India could be the most important political development of the 21st century. What will the foreign policies of China and India look like in the future? What should they look like? And what can each country learn from the other? Bridging Two Worlds gathers a coterie of experts in the field, analyzing profound political thinkers from these ancient regions whose theories of interstate relations set the terms for the debates today. This volume is the first work of its kind and is essential reading for anyone interested in the growth of China and India and what it means for the rest of the world.
Smart Governance in China’s Political-Legal System
Posted on Thu, Apr. 18, 2024
Straton Papagianneas, Leiden University
The rapid digitization and automation of social governance in China, called “smart governance,” entail new approaches to social and political control, driven by innovations in algorithmic systems, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. This article seeks to reveal the ideological foundations of the PRC’s push for “smart governance.” Drawing on international scholarship on Chinese Marxism and Leninism, it argues that the positivist organizational and ideological principles of Marxism-Leninism help explain why technology and automation are embraced so enthusiastically by the Chinese party-state.
The US–China Rivalry and the Emergence of State Platform Capitalism
Posted on Thu, Apr. 18, 2024
Steve Rolf, University of Sussex
The rise of digital platforms as a new form of business organization concentrates power in the United States and China. Platform capitalism further intersects with and reinforces pre-existing trends towards state capitalism, where states more actively direct economies in response to economic turbulence and heightened geopolitical tension. The concentration of global business power within two states, combined with the increasing capacity for these states to leverage and direct platform activities for their own geopolitical–economic ends, has catalyzed the rise of “state platform capitalism.”
Venture Capital Research in China: Data and Institutional Details
Posted on Wed, Apr. 17, 2024
Jun Chen, Renmin University of China
China has already become the second largest venture capital market in the world after the US. Despite the remarkable growth of both China’s tech sector and venture capital market, academic research in this area remains sparse. Two broad issues hinder the efforts of researchers studying this market: choosing the right data sources and understanding evolving institutional details. To address these two issues, the author first describes available data sources, accompanied with filters aimed at improving the quality of the data. He then reviews institutional details unique to the Chinese setting and recent regulatory changes that have direct impacts on the Chinese venture capital market
Regulating Donation-based Crowdfunding Platforms in Hong Kong: A Trust Law Framework
Posted on Wed, Apr. 17, 2024
Hui Jing, The University of Hong Kong
Recent media coverage highlighting scandals of maladministration of donation funds in the context of informal public donation appeals has impelled regulators to establish a systemic framework to govern crowdfunding platforms that host informal public donation appeals in Hong Kong. This article addresses two main aspects of this topic. First, it discusses the operation of crowdfunding platforms that host informal public donation appeals and the risks associated with them. Second, it explores the feasibility of utilising trust law to regulate the administration of donation funds by these crowdfunding platforms.
Law and Industrial Policy: the East Asian Experience
Posted on Tue, Apr. 16, 2024
James Si Zeng, Chinese University of Hong Kong
According to the conventional wisdom of law and development, the role of law in economic development is primarily passive, focusing on property protection and contract enforcement. However, East Asian economies have defied this conventional approach by achieving remarkable growth through the strategic implementation of industrial policies. Building on the experiences of East Asian economies, particularly China, this article argues that law can serve as an instrument for implementing industrial policy objectives. Consequently, industrial policy introduces a hierarchical dimension to the law. By comprehending the interplay between industrial policy and law, we can gain fresh perspectives on how the law impacts economic development.
Book Review: A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination
Posted on Tue, Apr. 16, 2024
Teemu Ruskola, University of Pennsylvania
While there is already much excellent work in the genre of Chinese Law and Literature, Haiyan Lee’s A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination (University of Chicago Press 2023) sets a new standard for the field. This is a review Lee’s smart and ambitious book, which far exceeds the bounds of both law and literature, expanding into adjacent fields of legal and literary humanities: history, political theory, moral philosophy, and cognitive psychology, to name just some of the many literatures on which Lee draws. The book is filled with exciting local and global insights, some of which are dazzling.
Revolutionizing the Family: Politics, Love, and Divorce in Urban and Rural China, 1949–1968
Posted on Mon, Apr. 15, 2024
Neil J. Diamant, Dickinson College
In 1950, China enacted a Marriage Law to allow free choice in marriage and easier access to divorce. In this comprehensive study of the effects of that law, Neil J. Diamant draws on newly opened urban and rural archival sources to offer a detailed analysis of how the law was interpreted and implemented throughout the country. In sharp contrast to previous studies of the Marriage Law, which have argued that it had little effect in rural areas, Diamant argues that the law reshaped marriage and family relationships in significant--but often unintended--ways throughout the Maoist period.
China's Financial System and Economy: A Review
Posted on Mon, Apr. 15, 2024
Zhiguo He, University of Chicago
Wei Wei, University of Chicago
China's financial system has been integral to its spectacular economic growth over the past 40 years. While early work on China's financial system emphasizes the state-owned enterprise reform, the recent literature explores other more market-based financing channels—including shadow banking—that grew rapidly after 2010. These new financing channels not only are intertwined with each other, but also, and more importantly, are often ultimately tied back to the dominant banking sector in China. Understanding the mechanisms behind these channels and their intrinsic connections is crucial to alleviate capital allocation distortion and mitigate potential systemic financial risk in China.
Talk: A Great Shift—The Birth of Regulatory Party State in China (Apr 24, 2024)
Posted on Fri, Apr. 12, 2024
Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
Since 2012, China’s approach to economic governance has undergone a significant transformation. Dr. Andrew Huang introduces the “Great Shift” concept, which denotes a recalibration of the state-market boundary within China’s political economy. Acknowledging the Great Shift calls for rethinking traditional “state capitalism” views and adopting a more nuanced engagement with China’s distinct state-driven model. Dr. Huang sheds light on the pivotal elements driving the Great Shift and its extensive impact on China’s political economy and the broader scope of global economic governance.
Date & Time: April 24, 2024 (Wednesday) 12:00 - 13:00 (HKT)
Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU (In-person only)
Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty
Posted on Fri, Apr. 12, 2024
Aynne Kokas, University of Virginia
Drawing on years of fieldwork in the US and China and a large trove of corporate and policy documents, this book explains how China is fast becoming the global leader in internet governance and policy, and thus of the data that defines our public and private lives. Confronting data trafficking as the defining international competition of the 21st century, this book advocates for an alternative future of data stabilization.
The National People's Congress in China
Posted on Thu, Apr. 11, 2024
Ying Sun, Sun Yat-Sen University
China is a unitary system with two special administrative regions (SARs). The Chinese government does not welcome the idea of checks-and-balance as it believes that the people's will can only be exercised through the people's congress system. According to the Chinese Constitution, the National People's Congress is the highest organ of state power.
Foreign Investment in China: The Administrative Legal System
Posted on Thu, Apr. 11, 2024
Peter Corne, NYU Shanghai
China’s legal system is characterized by the gap between law and reality. Focusing on regulatory law, and with reference to the foreign investment area, this book identifies the functional and structural problems within China’s administrative legal system that perpetuate this gap.
Posted on Wed, Apr. 10, 2024
Yi Mengjie, China Academy of Fiscal Science
Jiasheng Li, Tsinghua University
Guangjun Shen, Sun Yat-sen University
Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) is an important leverage for China to overcome poverty. While its economic effects are well studied, less is known about the social impact of TPA. Based on trial documents data from the China Judgments Online, the authors use DID method and find the growth rate of criminal offenses reduced by over 20% after the implementation of TPA. The income growth effect from TPA is the primary mechanism for suppressing criminal crimes. Improved employment plays a role as well.
Constituency Service and Valence Voting in Semi-Competitive Elections: Theory and Evidence of China
Posted on Wed, Apr. 10, 2024
Yu Zeng, Peking University
Junzhi He, Sun Yat-sen University
Xiaobo Lu, Columbia University
While extensive research has delved into various factors shaping vote choice in democratic elections, few has investigated vote choice in the semi-competitive elections where the ruling party typically secures unequivocal victory. But the noteworthy phenomenon of a few independent candidates winning votes and even seats in these elections suggests that vote choice in closed regimes merits scholarly attention. This study examines China’s local congressional elections using comparative case studies and a conjoint experiment.
Posted on Tue, Apr. 9, 2024
Xiaolin Li, Towson University
Paul Benjamin Lowry, Virginia Tech
Fujun Lai, University of Southern Mississippi
The successful implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is significantly predicated on establishing customer trust, a challenge accentuated in mainland China. Whereas contracts and transaction-specific investments are common strategies to build this trust, their effectiveness remains contested in the existing literature. Specifically, the underlying mechanisms through which detailed contracts influence trust are still not clearly understood. To address these gaps, this study employs signaling theory to conceptualize a model that elucidates how contract completeness, vendor contract compliance, transaction-specific investment act, and ownership type as trust-building signals in ERP vendor–vendee relationships within the Chinese context.
Damages Per Share in Securities Litigation: A Comparison of Chinese and US Systems
Posted on Mon, Apr. 8, 2024
Timothy J McKenna, NERA Economic Consulting
In late 2021, the Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou awarded damages totaling RMB 2.46 billion to investors in Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. This article compares the methodology used by the Court to compute damages with the methodology typically used in securities litigation in the US. Unlike the methodology used in the US, the Court’s method is not centered on what can be directly observed about the impact of the fraud. As such, if the goal is to compensate investors solely for their losses due to the fraud, the method used by the Court is not as accurate as the method used in the US.
Posted on Mon, Apr. 8, 2024
Stuart Hargreaves, Chinese University of Hong Kong
This Chapter updates prior research regarding translation of Court of Final Appeal judgments from English into Chinese to the end of 2023. It suggests that while translation rates remain low overall, a pattern appears to be emerging in which judgments related to the National Security Law (NSL) are prioritized for translation. The author contends that this shows conscious decisions are being taken regarding which decisions to translate and in turn this is an implicit admission that translation matters. And if it matters, then the responsibility lays with the Government to improve funding to ensure that complete translation of the Court’s output is available.
Book Talk: How to Revive China’s Sagging Economy? (Apr 22 2024)
Posted on Fri, Apr. 5, 2024
Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
China’s economy is at a crossroads, facing its most significant challenges in recent memory. Amidst this economic turmoil, a fierce debate has emerged among leading experts: Is the current economic downturn a result of ingrained structural issues, excessive state intervention, or escalating geopolitical tensions? In this roundtable discussion, Professor Angela Zhang will offer a fresh perspective by steering the conversation towards the distinct model of China’s regulatory governance, drawing insights from her newly released book, “High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy.”
Posted on Wed, Apr. 3, 2024
Ngoc Son Bui, University of Oxford
This chapter conceptualises the Confucian legal tradition as a historically extended and legally embodied Confucian argument. The Confucian legal tradition has three features. First, it is jurisprudentially founded on a set of Confucian concepts and principles justifying the importance of good men. Second, the Confucian argument is embodied in structural institutions and legal codes in premodern and modern East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam). Third, legally embodied Confucian concepts and principles are historically extended for thousands of years from formation, consolidation, and transnationalisation to modernisation.
Borrowing without Banks: Deposit-Taking by Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Firms (1920s–1930s)
Posted on Tue, Apr. 2, 2024
Michael Ng, The University of Hong Kong
This article examines how and why renowned Republican-era Chinese firms raised debt capital to finance their businesses by accepting savings deposits from ordinary people instead of borrowing from financial institutions. The article argues that in the absence of a powerful unitary state and centralized financial institutions, Chinese firms innovated sophisticated, decentralized financial instruments capable of amassing large quantities of capital from a broad host of depositors without the involvement of financial intermediaries.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 28, 2024
Albert Chen, The University of Hong Kong
This chapter provides an overview of the legal system and history of China, highlighting the evolution of Chinese law from ancient times to the present day. It discusses the development of Legalism and Confucianism as the foundations of traditional Chinese law, the influence of Western legal systems during the modernization period, and the establishment of the PRC with its various constitutions. The chapter also covers the structure and function of China’s political and legal institutions, its civil and commercial laws, the court system, and legal education.
Anti-Corruption in a Party-State
Posted on Wed, Mar. 27, 2024
James Lee, The University of Hong Kong
The 2018 amendments to the PRC Constitution saw the establishment of a system of supervisory commissions, which is a landmark development not only for anti-corruption, but also constitutional law in China. After providing an overview of the background and legal framework of the reform, this article discusses its constitutional implications from three perspectives. The article concludes with some brief reflections on what this development indicates for the future of the rule of law in China, and highlights the potential for further research.
The Case for Regulating Generative AI Through Common Law
Posted on Wed, Mar. 27, 2024
S. Alex Yang, London Business School
Angela Huyue Zhang, The University of Hong Kong
The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act could impede the development of AI technologies, which depends on the availability of human-generated content as training data. By contrast, case-by-case adjudication could prove to be a more effective mechanism for tackling the myriad challenges posed by emerging technologies.
Posted on Tue, Mar. 26, 2024
Mark Jia, Georgetown University
The most contested question in the study of Chinese law is also its most enduring one: how should we characterize China’s legal system? In recent years, scholars have advanced numerous theories to explain Chinese law. Some have emphasized legality; others have stressed order; still others have described the system as dual or multi-faceted. This Essay contributes a set of meta-theoretical insights to these discussions. It argues that the preceding debates would benefit from reflecting on the general qualities that make theories good, with special attention to the analytic costs and benefits of different modes of theorizing.
Plea Leniency and Prosecution Centredness in China's Criminal Process
Posted on Tue, Mar. 26, 2024
Xin He, The University of Hong Kong
China's criminal proceedings have been recognized as being “investigation centred.” This paper argues that the rise of the Plea Leniency System has led to “prosecution centredness.” While this paradigm shift signals further leniency in criminal justice, rights protections make way for efficiency and crime control. As such, plea leniency has profound implications for the operation of the criminal justice apparatuses, defendants, defence lawyers, and the mode of crime control in China.
Macau and Hong Kong: Convergence or Divergence?
Posted on Mon, Mar. 25, 2024
Han Zhu, The University of Hong Kong
In May 2023, Macau passed amendments to the Law on Safeguarding National Security (MANSL), drawing heavily on the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNSL). This article examines the major modifications made to the MANSL in reference to the HKNSL, and demonstrates that the revised MANSL has deviated from its pro-liberal, narrowly defined precursor. The two distinct paradigms of national security legislation in Hong Kong and Macau reveal the increasingly muddled and complex constitutional relationship between the central authority and the two Special Administrative Regions.
Empirical Study of the Role of the Chinese Guiding Case System in Chinese Law
Posted on Mon, Mar. 25, 2024
Dong Yan, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Jeffrey Thomas, University of Missouri
This article reports on a study of Guiding Case (GC) No. 18 in the field of employment law from its selection in 2013 to 2021. The study also considered the influence of a judicial Meeting Summary on the same topic. Although the precise relationship between the GC and the Meeting Summary is not clear, both were influential, warrant further study and may contribute to legal reform.
The Stewardship of Institutional Investors in China: The Way Forward
Posted on Fri, Mar. 22, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
This talk analyzes various types of institutional investors in China and assesses the evolving stewardship roles of these investors in Chinese listed companies. The speaker advocates for a redesign of the traditional UK-style stewardship framework, suggesting a shift in stewardship responsibility towards investors who inherently possess incentives or resources, specifically strategic investors and the China Securities Investor Services Center. These insights will contribute to targeted and impactful corporate governance reforms, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of institutional stewardship in jurisdictions with concentrated ownership.
Date & Time: March 27, 2024 (Wednesday) 12:30-13:30
Venue: Room 723, 7/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU (In-person only)
Meeting the Looming Deadline for Corporate Reorganizations of Sino-Foreign Joint Ventures
Posted on Thu, Mar. 21, 2024
Daniel Chow, Ohio State University
All sino-foreign joint ventures formed under China’s foreign investment legal regime in place for forty years from 1979-2019 must reorganize and register under the landmark Foreign Investment Law of 2020 and the Company Law by December 31, 2024. Failure to register by this date could subject joint ventures to numerous legal obstacles that will severely disrupt the conduct of their business operations and that will be difficult to untangle. Reorganization under the Company Law, however, involves a number of pitfalls that US companies must recognize and avoid in order to successfully file for registration by the deadline.
Religion in China – Historical and Legal Context
Posted on Wed, Mar. 20, 2024
Keren Wang, Pennsylvania State University
The complex and quite rich discourse centered on the three “Abrahamic” religions does not suggest the only way in which one can approach the issue of religious “liberty” or understand the relation among religion and the state. China offers an important and distinctive path that is in its own way more difficult to square with the Western focused discourse that has now become a global standard. Thus is it necessary, before exploring the technical legal details about the interaction of religion and the state in China. This essay offers a brief glimpse at a complex problem, and suggests the basis for the quite substantial difficulties of communicating between systems.
Gender, Sexuality and Constitutionalism in Asia
Posted on Wed, Mar. 20, 2024
Wen-Chen Chang, National Taiwan University
Kelley Loper, The University of Hong Kong
Mara Malagodi, University of Warwick
Ruth Rubio-Marín, University of Sevilla
This book analyses the equal citizenship claims of women and sexual and gender diverse people across several Asian jurisdictions. The volume examines the rich diversity of constitutional responses to sex, gender and sexuality in the region from a comparative perspective. Leading comparative constitutional law scholars identify ‘opportunity structures’ to explain the uneven advancement of gender equality through constitutional litigation and consider a combination of variables which shape the diverging trajectories of the jurisdictions in this study.
Intellectual Property Legislation Holism in China
Posted on Tue, Mar. 19, 2024
Taorui Guan, The University of Hong Kong
As current literature lacks studies on China’s holistic approach to intellectual property (IP) legislation, this Article aims to counter this deficiency. It reviews the history of China’s IP legislation, then systematically surveys China’s IP laws, including those promulgated at both the central and local government levels. The article’s description and analysis of the system should shed light on how policymakers in other jurisdictions, even those that generally export intellectual property institutions, can think about reforming their own intellectual property systems.
Cooperative Federalism and Patent Legislation: A Study Comparing China and the United States
Posted on Tue, Mar. 19, 2024
Taorui Guan, The University of Hong Kong
How should patent legislative power be allocated between central and local governments in order to construct a patent system conducive to promoting innovation? Compared to the current centralized patent legislation model in the U.S., China’s semi-decentralized patent legislation model has the advantage of making statutory law more adaptable to local specificities and promoting local competition and institutional innovation. However, it also faces challenges, such as increased costs due to inconsistency; efficiency decline stemming from rent-seeking behaviors; and the risk that local protectionism will create anti-competitive effects.
Caveat Lector: Large Language Models in Legal Practice
Posted on Mon, Mar. 18, 2024
Eliza Mik, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Drawing from recent findings in both technical and legal scholarship, this Article counterbalances the overly optimistic predictions as to the role of large language models (LLMs) in legal practice. Integrating LLMs into legal workstreams without a better comprehension of their limitations, will create inefficiencies if not outright risks. LLMs operate at the level of word distributions, not at the level of verified facts. The resulting propensity to hallucinate, to produce statements that are incorrect but appear helpful and relevant, is alarming in high-risk areas like legal services.
Posted on Mon, Mar. 18, 2024
Angus Young, The University of Hong Kong
This article traces the historical development of moneylending legislation in the context of Hong Kong’s free market and non-intervention policy and how that has resulted in a lack of an effective safety net for the financially disadvantaged. This article compares the developments in the UK and Singapore and considers what lessons can be learnt from their experience. This article will make some suggestions for further improving the regulatory framework, thereby advancing financial inclusion of lower income and other vulnerable borrowers.
Tracing the Roots of China’s AI Regulations
Posted on Fri, Mar. 15, 2024
Matt Sheehan, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
China is regulating AI, and the rest of the world would be wise to pay attention. Since 2021, the Chinese state has rolled out a series of targeted and binding regulations that constitute some of the first major moves by an AI power to govern one of the most transformative technologies of our time. These regulations target recommendation algorithms, deep synthesis, generative AI, and most recently facial recognition. China is now debating whether to create an overarching national AI law that could be written and rolled out in the years ahead. This paper is the second in a series of three analyzing China’s AI regulations and the forces shaping them.
Regulation of the Legal Profession in China: A Historical Overview
Posted on Fri, Mar. 15, 2024
John Ohnesorge, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Understanding a legal system requires understanding of its legal service providers. The Chinese legal system has undergone major transformations since the late 19th century, accompanied by a series of approaches to regulating China’s lawyers. This article offers a historical overview of these approaches, discussing the regulation of the Chinese legal profession and the foreign lawyers operating in China. Going forward, Chinese firms might be supported to the extent they further the Xi regime’s economic aspirations, but they will be subject to closer oversight by the CCP. Foreign firms are no longer considered necessary for China’s economic rise, and they will be able to remain in China only if they are willing to abide by significant new restrictions.
Connecting Chinese and American Scam Victims
Posted on Thu, Mar. 14, 2024
Jonathan Reiter, ChainArgos, Data Finnovation
Bitrace Team
The world is experiencing an epidemic of online scams with at least tens of billions of dollars lost across dozens of countries. One particular class of scam known as “pig butchering” has grown dramatically and often involves the use of cryptocurrency both to collect funds from victims and to launder the proceeds. Here we are going to explore the use of cryptocurrency in pig butchering scams beginning with victims in both the People’s Republic of China and United States of America, and demonstrating the remarkable degree of similarity for cases that have no reason a priori to be similar at all.
From Brussels Effect to Gravity Assists
Posted on Wed, Mar. 13, 2024
Wenlong Li, University of Edinburgh
Jiahong Chen, University of Sheffield
This paper argues that the trajectory of China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) calls into question the applicability of the Brussels Effect. The authors introduce a complementary theory of ‘gravity assist’ which portrays China’s strategic instrumentalization of the GDPR as a template to shape its unique data protection landscape. This conceptual framework highlights how China navigates through a patchwork of internal considerations, international standards, and strategic choices, ultimately sculpting a data protection regime that has a similar appearance to the GDPR but aligns with its distinct political, cultural and legal landscape.
The Long-run Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence and Mechanisms
Posted on Wed, Mar. 13, 2024
Yu Bai, Tohoku University
Yanjun Li, Tohoku University
Xinyan Liu, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ryuichi Tanaka, University of Tokyo
The authors examine the impact of educational attainment on participation in criminal activities, employing the implementation of compulsory schooling laws (CSL) to address the endogeneity in schooling decisions. Using data from the China Judgment Online and the regression discontinuity method, the authors find that CSL significantly increased the years of schooling, subsequently leading to a decrease in crime rates among the treated birth cohort. The crime-reducing effects can be attributed to various mechanisms, including the composition effect and contextual effects.
How China’s Supreme People’s Court Supports the Development of Foreign-Related Rule of Law
Posted on Tue, Mar. 12, 2024
Susan Finder, Peking University, The University of Hong Kong
This article provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the role of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) in the Xi era, examining functions little explored in scholarship. It explains how and why the SPC supports national strategies, focusing on the development of “foreign-related rule of law” through multiple “active” functions. It explores that work in the context of strengthened Communist Party leadership of the courts and other legal institutions. The article illustrates one aspect of the unique role of the SPC as China’s highest court in its dynamic political-legal system and the way in which it supports evolving national strategies and the implementation of fundamental policies.
Posted on Tue, Mar. 12, 2024
Setsen K., Trento University, Oxford University
The criminal law of picking quarrels and provoking trouble in mainland China is ambiguous and open ended, easily blurring the boundaries with other crimes, which has led to concerns in the academic and social communities that it has become a new “pocket crime”. This paper adopts an empirical and comparative approach to analyze the legal evolution of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, starting from its legislative origins and background. At the same time, it focuses on the most controversial issue of picking quarrels and provoking trouble—its survival or abolition—and analyses it.
Law and Politics of Religious Fraud Regulation: China, Taiwan and Hong Kong
Posted on Mon, Mar. 11, 2024
Jianlin Chen, University of Melbourne
This book comparatively examines the law and politics of religious fraud regulation in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The author begins with questions of ‘how’: what are the precise legal tools used by the state to tackle perceived religious fraud? Then the author proceeds to evaluate the constitutionality of these tools. The author further connects the various strands of literature into a coherent theoretical framework. Next, the author moves on to the political dimension, utilizing the rational choice perspective to explain the convergences and divergences of religious fraud regulation in these jurisdictions. He then identifies two implications from this political account.
A Comparative Study on Fiduciary Duties in Chinese Company Law
Posted on Mon, Mar. 11, 2024
Ping Xiong, University of South Australia
Corporate laws in China and in Anglo-Australian jurisdictions provide rules purporting to create ‘fiduciary duties’ owed by directors and senior officers of corporations. When such laws were first made in origin countries, they were a product of distinctive local conditions and evolved over decades. Corporate law that transplants into borrowing countries such as China have also sought to facilitate local political and economic objectives and they rarely fit neatly with the needs of a borrowing state. This article observes that, despite the use of often similar legal language, Western notions of fiduciary duty have different meanings and operate very differently in China.
Book Talk by Angela Zhang: How China Governs Big Tech and Regulates AI (Mar 21 2024)
Posted on Fri, Mar. 8, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
In this book talk, Professor Zhang will take us beyond the headlines of China’s tech crackdown to unravel the complexity of China’s regulatory governance. Drawing insights from her newly released book “High Wire,” she will introduce the dynamic pyramid model of regulation, apply it to analyze China’s strategic approach to regulating artificial intelligence, and discuss its implications for the global tech rivalry and the prospects for international cooperation. Join Professor Zhang as she uncovers how China regulates on the high wire by navigating the intricate balance between innovation, regulation and geopolitical contest.
Date & Time: March 21, 2024 (Thursday) 13:00-14:15
Venue: Room 824, 8/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU
Do China's Anti-Corruption Efforts Improve Corporate Productivity?
Posted on Thu, Mar. 7, 2024
Miaomiao Tao, University of Auckland
Abd Alwahed Dagestani, Central South University
Lim Thye Goh, University of Malaya
Yuhang Zheng, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics
Le Wen, University of Auckland
Corruption affects corporate investment and diverts resources away from growth-improving factors, thereby lowering productivity. Using a time-varying difference-in-differences approach, the authors identified the causal effect of China’s anti-corruption campaign on corporate productivity during 2011–2021. The findings uncovered that China’s anti-corruption campaign increased corporate productivity by approximately 18.43%. Results from heterogeneity analysis showed that the promoting effect was particularly significant in non-state-owned firms, firms without political ties, and firms in areas with weak legal systems.
China's Corporate Credit System & The Boundaries of Corporate Liability
Posted on Thu, Mar. 7, 2024
Virginia E. Harper Ho, City University of Hong Kong
This chapter examines how China’s corporate credit system reaches complex corporate groups, and places these developments in the context of international efforts that extend corporate accountability across entity boundaries and that reach beyond the protection of shareholders and creditors to encourage corporate responsibility for societal impacts. It concludes that at present, the public-facing corporate credit platforms are not sufficiently transparent to facilitate public oversight of corporate groups and networks, but may already create reputational compliance incentives across firms and enable enterprise-wide oversight by regulators.
Rolling Back Transparency in China's Courts
Posted on Wed, Mar. 6, 2024
Benjamin L. Liebman, Columbia University
Rachel E. Stern, University of California, Berkeley
Xiaohan Wu, University of California, San Diego
Margaret E. Roberts, University of California, San Diego
Despite a burgeoning conversation about the centrality of information management to governments, scholars are only just beginning to address the role of legal information in sustaining authoritarian rule. This Essay presents a case study showing how legal information can be manipulated: through the deletion of previously published cases. Using their own dataset of all 42 million cases made public in China between Jan 1, 2014, and Sep 2, 2018, the authors examine the recent deletion of criminal cases. Taken together, the decision(s) to remove hundreds of thousands of unconnected cases shape a narrative about the Chinese courts, Chinese society, and the Chinese Party-State.
China’s Regulations on New Types of Unfair Competition in the Digital Age
Posted on Wed, Mar. 6, 2024
Xuan Wang, Xiamen University
Xiuqin Lin, Xiamen University
China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law underwent its first revision in 2017, introducing the “Internet Provision”. However, the rules contained evident flaws, resulting in frequent invocation of the “catch-all clause” by courts. This approach has given rise to convoluted reasoning, unstable outcomes, and excessive judicial intervention. The newly proposed “data clause” aims to address these issues. Yet it has its own ambiguities and fails to properly safeguard freedom of information. The authors argue that due consideration should be given to the principle of competitive neutrality. They also criticize an overly broad recognition of “new unfair competition behavior,” as it may hinder market entry and stifle innovation in the long run.
(Talk) AI Outputs Are Not Protected Speech (Mar 13 2024)
Posted on Tue, Mar. 5, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
When a generative AI system outputs some text, image, or sound, no one thereby communicates. Systems like ChatGPT are designed to be able to “say” essentially anything, producing innumerable ideas and opinions that neither creators nor users have conceived or endorsed. Absent a communication from a protected speaker, there is no protected speech. This talk explains why as a matter of First Amendment law, free speech theory, and computer-scientific fact, AI outputs are best understood as fitting into one or more of these less-protected First Amendment categories.
Date & Time: March 13, 2024 (Wednesday) 12:00-13:00
Venue: Room 723, 7/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU
Agile and Iterative Governance: China's Regulatory Response to AI
Posted on Tue, Mar. 5, 2024
Baiyang Xiao, University of Szeged
In response to challenges posed by AI, China has not only implemented proactive administrative intervention in policy support, central coordination, and investment, but also adopted an AI governance framework that characterized by ‘complexity,’ ‘agility,’ ‘stability,’ and ‘flexibility.’ Instead of calling for an omnibus AI law that applies a uniform package of rules, Chinese regulators chose to adapt horizontal elements into vertical regulations through a set of bureaucratic know-how and iterative regulatory tools. Different jurisdictions may differ on the specific content of AI regulations, but they can learn from the content-agnostic structure of the regulations themselves.
Posted on Mon, Mar. 4, 2024
Pierangelo Blandino, University of Lapland
This summary explores the degree of rights’ protection when it comes to States forms of surveillance under a concise legal comparative outline. Given today’s interdependence put into being first by Global Governance patterns and then by exchange on platforms, attention will be drawn to Chinese PIPL, the US CLOUD Act and the EU GDPR, along with the recently adopted Data Privacy Framework. At a second stage, new possible techniques are considered to properly tackle these unprecedented changes that challenge traditional legal patterns.
From Courtrooms to Corporations
Posted on Mon, Mar. 4, 2024
Obaid Ur Rehman, Southeast University
Zihan Zhou, Central University of Finance and Economics
Kai Wu, Central University of Finance and Economics
Wen Li, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics
The authors examine the impact of bankruptcy court establishment (BCE) on corporate acquisition activities using hand-collected data of city-level BCE in China from 2008 to 2020. The results show that BCE promotes corporate acquisition activities largely due to mitigated information asymmetry and decreased deal inefficiency. These results highlight the important role of judiciary reform in corporate acquisition decisions in emerging markets.
Posted on Fri, Mar. 1, 2024
Md Rezaull Karim, Southwest University of Political Science and Law
This is an in-depth exploration of the nexus between climate justice, human rights principles, and the instrumental role of Environmental Public Interest Litigation (EPIL) in ensuring accountability and equity. With a particular emphasis on the Chinese context, the article explores the theoretical underpinnings, practical applications, and future prospects of attaining climate justice using EPIL. The analysis of how the Chinese model of EPIL may be modified for international climate disputes, as well as the possibilities and obstacles involved in doing so, forms the basis of this conversation.
Posted on Fri, Mar. 1, 2024
Kai Guo, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Bin Ke, National University of Singapore
The authors assess the impact of China’s pre-trade disclosure regulation. They observe that this regulation effectively curbs the practice of informed insider selling. Despite a decrease in informed insider sales, the authors find no evidence that stock price informativeness changes post-regulation. This latter finding is partially attributed to the private information revealed when insiders announce their sale plans that are subsequently retracted, coupled with a heightened analyst interest in stocks that exhibit signs of future underperformance.
Trends in China-Africa Economic Relations and Dispute Settlement
Posted on Thu, Feb. 29, 2024
Won Kidane, Villanova University
The improvements in supranational legal frameworks have not kept pace with the growing scale and complexity of the China-Africa economic interactions, which are often orchestrated through confidential and fragmented micro-level contractual instruments unsupported by larger institutional frameworks. Therefore, two important questions need to be asked: (1) whether the lack of durable legal and institutional commitment is a function of socio-cultural factors, diminished optimism, politics, or just outright pragmatism; (2) whether the contracts-based economic legal ordering that relies on existing rules and institutions is optimal and durable. This article attempts to answer these and related questions.
The Chinese Tax System: Where It Stands and How We Should Study It
Posted on Thu, Feb. 29, 2024
Wei Cui, University of British Columbia
This chapter offers an overview of where China’s tax system stands, assesses recent scholarship on Chinese taxation, and urges researchers to attend more to normative questions of tax design (e.g., economic efficiency and redistribution). After surveying major tax instruments deployed in China today, the chapter critically reviews recent studies of taxation’s impact on the Chinese economy, then considers some themes at the intersection between Chinese political institutions and public finance: political incentives for raising revenue, tax competition, and business-government relations. It also discusses how tax scholarship contributes to our understanding of Chinese political economy.
(Talk) Superpower Legal Rivalry and the Global Compliance Dilemma (Mar 4 2024)
Posted on Wed, Feb. 28, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
The intensifying rivalry between the United States and China has spawned a proliferation of contradictory laws and regulations, plunging transnational actors into a vexing compliance dilemma—conformity with U.S. law often necessitates contravention of Chinese law, and vice versa. Prof Ji Li illuminates this superpower legal rivalry and how multinational corporations (MNCs), as prime beneficiaries of post-Cold War economic globalization, navigate this fractured, intricate legal terrain when compelled to take sides amid the great power competition.
Date & Time: March 4, 2024 (Monday) 12:00-13:00
Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU
Posted on Wed, Feb. 28, 2024
Riccardo Vecellio Segate, University of Groningen
Pursuant to Article 63 of the TRIPS Agreement, a state may require other treaty parties to disclose their intellectual property case law ‘of general application’. Civil law systems theoretically employ judgments as reference only. Nevertheless, to value consistency and predictability, the hybridisation of civil law jurisdictions is increasingly leading them to devise special lists of judgments that acquire formal or factual binding status on lower-ranked courts. This trend is particularly evident in China. When the US and the EU requested, through the WTO, that China disclose the full range of its case law of general application, China responded that civil law jurisdictions do not issue judgments that are binding beyond the parties. This article examines the limitations and merits of the Chinese stance.
The Forever Trade War: Dimensions of Sino-American Confrontation
Posted on Tue, Feb. 27, 2024
Raj Bhala, University of Kansas
America and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are locked in a trade war, to which there is no obvious end in sight, the causes of which lie in their different values, the conduct of which extends far beyond commerce, and the consequences of which are dangerous. This thesis begs the question of the definition of a “trade war,” which is proposed to be a broad, deep, and intense drawn-out conflict.
Gains from Contractualization: Evidence from Labor Regulations on Chinese Workers
Posted on Tue, Feb. 27, 2024
Qin Gao, Columbia University
Candice Yandam Riviere, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
The authors find that gaining a labor contract was strongly associated with an increase in salary, a decrease in working overtime hours, and greater participation in unemployment and pension insurances. In terms of job satisfaction, workers who gained a labor contract reported being less satisfied with their workplace environment and income than they had anticipated. This finding suggests that workers had higher expectations from the benefits gained through contractualization, than what they actually derived.
Contesting and Controlling Abortion in China’s Courts
Posted on Mon, Feb. 26, 2024
Molly Bodurtha, Government of the State of Massachusetts
Benjamin L. Liebman, Columbia University
Li Chenqian, Columbia University
Xiaohan Wu, University of California, San Diego
The scholarly conversation on abortion, democracy, and how courts reflect and entrench gender disparities entirely omits China. This lack of attention reflects the common understanding that courts play no role in regulating reproduction and that abortion remains unproblematic in China. Yet Chinese courts do confront and decide claims involving abortion. Drawing on a dataset of more than 30,000 civil cases discussing abortion, this article examines claims by men that their wives obtained abortions without the man’s “authorization.” The persistence of such claims suggests that women’s access to abortion care is more regulated in China than academic and popular accounts convey.
Legal Complicity in an Age of Resurgent Authoritarianism
Posted on Mon, Feb. 26, 2024
Jedidiah J. Kroncke, The University of Hong Kong
Today, end of history narratives such as modernization theory have succumbed to not only resilient authoritarian regimes but also a global resurgence in authoritarian ideologies in liberal regimes. Many authoritarian regimes have proven capable of sustained economic development, even economic liberalization, while keeping democratic institutions from forming or flourishing. This development thus demands a renewed examination of the ethics of legal engagement with authoritarian regimes, especially as they have become deeply integrated into the world economy. The American legal profession’s modern engagement with China is an acute case of this renewed problematic, but only one example of a shared conundrum among liberal legal professions worldwide.
Book Talk: Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the US Legal System (Feb 29 2024)
Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2024
Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, The University of Hong Kong
While the global expansion of Chinese companies has ignited intense debates, their interactions with host-state legal systems have largely escaped systematic examination. Negotiating Legality sheds light on how Chinese companies develop in-house legal capacities, engage with US legal professionals, and navigate litigation in US courts. This talk is indispensable for anyone interested in China’s rise, its global impacts especially on legal systems of developed nations like the US, and the intricate dynamics of US-China relations.
Date & Time: February 29, 2024 (Thursday) 12:00 - 13:00
Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU (In-person only)
Half a Loaf Is Better Than None: The New Data Protection Regime for China’s Platform Economy
Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2024
Chuanman You, National University of Singapore (NUS)
This paper contributes an analytical overview of why and how the Personal Information Protection Law is shaped by focusing on its legislative background, substantive rules and enforcement mechanisms. The influence of the GDPR in shaping this regulatory paradigm is scrutinized, with reference to pertinent concerns that could compromise the effectiveness of this paradigm in the Chinese context. As in its current form, the law fails to address several critical matters. Alas, half a loaf is better than none.
Right to Data Access in the Digital Era: The Case of China
Posted on Thu, Feb. 22, 2024
Yik Chan Chin, Beijing Normal University
This chapter examines the academic debate on access to digital data in China and the Chinese state’s policy on data. First, the concept of epistemic rights has not drawn academic attention, while the closely related concept of the right to information stresses the consumer’s right to obtain public information and digital platforms’ data rights. Second, the right to data access has not been treated as an independent right but as part of the debate on data property rights and the right to information. Third, data is officially defined as a new factor of production that is key for national economic development. Finally, the lack of attention to epistemic rights and an overly narrow definition of data has undermined alternative explorations of the implications of the public good nature of data.
China's Individual Income Tax Law for Expatriates
Posted on Thu, Feb. 22, 2024
Jingyi Wang, Chinese University of Hong Kong
In recent times, many mainland Chinese are taking up employment or immigration opportunities outside China. At the same time, the Chinese tax authorities are increasing their attempts to enforce Chinese law on Chinese working outside mainland China. This article examines the tax consequences of both outbound and inbound cross-border employment from China’s perspective. By comparing the income tax rules applicable to different groups of cross-border employees, the article will highlight the discriminatory treatment of Chinese cross-border employees and propose measures to better facilitate the cross-border movement of human resources.
China’s New Model of Authoritarian Legality
Posted on Wed, Feb. 21, 2024
Zeming Liu, Columbia Law School
The author argues that through the project of integrating the “Socialist Core Values” (SCVs) into legal judgments, the Party-state is effectively imposing a new conception of what Chinese law is. The Chinese judiciary is now required to decide cases under the assumption that they must go beyond statutory language to “find” law that conforms to the SCVs. This new jurisprudence departs from legalism, which used to be China’s predominant model of legality for many years, and gives rise to a new model of authoritarian legality featuring the incorporation of the extralegal, moralistic social norms mandated by the authoritarian state into the contents of law itself. This new model features a destabilized legal system that allows the authoritarian ruler to flexibly exercise its power in the name of law.
The Temporality of Law in Traditional China and Its Contemporary Implications
Posted on Wed, Feb. 21, 2024
Tao Wang, East China University of Political Science and Law
Temporality of law is of great significance in traditional Chinese juridicopolitical thought, and its influence plays a crucial role in China’s state building and governance. The existing temporal phrases from the West are not sufficient for explaining the symbol-oriented legal system in traditional China. Formalist law overlooks the temporal elements intrinsic to the legal system and results in the failure of governance. This Article applies a historical culture paradigm to analyze the temporality of law in traditional China. It further shows that the intertemporal dynamism in law facilitated the formation of a unified and stable system of order over China’s long imperial period. The intertemporality in traditional Chinese law still exerts huge influence on legal governance in contemporary China.
Regulating Platform Economy in China: Shocks and Revisions
Posted on Tue, Feb. 20, 2024
Xin Dai, Peking University
In the years of 2020 and 2021 the Chinese government attempted at structurally tightening its regulatory controls over the country’s major digital platform firms. It was widely observed that the government’s once tolerant regulatory regime had then shifted into a more heavy-handed mode. This article explains that the policy turn was attributable to not only legitimate concerns over the industry’s flaws but also the popular societal sentiments associated with the firms’ perceived betrayal of their progressive promises. By end of 2022, however, endeavors for structural reforms were mostly shelved by the authorities due to changed economic circumstances. The Chinese authorities now likely will return to a more marginal regulatory approach in addressing issues from platform practices and operations.
Posted on Tue, Feb. 20, 2024
Keren Wang, Pennsylvania State University
The construction of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is arguably the most significant governance-by-data experiment so far into the 21st century. This paper explores the ways in which the SCS project was prompted by a ritual impulse to inculcate Chinese societal moral character in the big data age. It first highlights relevant perspectives from Chinese intellectual history, ritual studies, and comparative legal scholarship as analytical heuristics for unpacking the deeper discursive structures entangled within the Chinese SCS project. The author then applies the transdisciplinary lens on recent cases of data-driven, personalized “public shaming” urban implementations by Chinese local authorities.
Posted on Mon, Feb. 19, 2024
Taisu Zhang, Yale University
This symposium essay proposes that in very large, very diverse societies, authoritarian regimes may have even stronger incentives to pursue law-centric modes of sociopolitical ordering than do democratic ones. This does not necessarily mean that they will always act upon such incentives, but it does offer a deeper explanation for why the Chinese regime in particular is very unlikely to decisively abandon its current legalistic trajectory at any point in the foreseeable future. This is very much a thought experiment, but hopefully one that offers useful ideas for future research.
Varieties of Authoritarian Legality
Posted on Mon, Feb. 19, 2024
Shucheng Wang, City University of Hong Kong
This article critically examines the varieties of authoritarian legality in three differentiated paradigms, namely, ‘law and politics’, ‘law with politics’, and ‘law in politics’. It points out that the engagement of authoritarian legality is favourably facilitated through politically controllable legal institutions and state-shaped public sphere. It argues that the standalone statist reason cannot stand out alone as a legitimate ground for legality unless some other alternative reasons can be dialogically engaged in the public discourse. Otherwise, the force and violence may be clothed in the form of a law that serves as a political instrument for the ruling of the authoritarian government.
Bibliography of Academic Writings in the Field of Chinese Law in Western Languages in 2022
Posted on Wed, Feb. 7, 2024
Knut Benjamin Pissler, Max Planck Institute
Fenja Eckardt, Max Planck Institute
The bibliography aims to give readers an overview on articles published in English or German in the field of Chinese law in 2022. Regarding relevant German-language literature, the issues 1 to 12 of the journal Karlsruher Juristische Bibliographie (KJB) of the year 2022 were screened. Simultaneously the classification scheme of the KJB was used as a model in this bibliography. Abbreviations are not utilized in order to facilitate the use of this bibliography by international readers. Concerning English-language literature the authors mainly focused on periodicals and books available at the library of the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (MPI) in Hamburg. Besides the authors scrutinized fee-charging databases like Westlaw, LexisNexis, Juris and Beck-Online for relevant articles.
Generative AI and Copyright: A Dynamic Perspective
Posted on Tue, Feb. 6, 2024
S. Alex Yang, London Business School
Angela Huyue Zhang, The University of Hong Kong
The future development of generative AI and its applications in the creative industry hinge upon two copyright issues: 1) the compensation to creators whose content has been used to train generative AI models (the fair use standard); and 2) the eligibility of AI-generated content for copyright protection (AI-copyrightability). This paper aims to better understand the economic implications of these two regulatory issues and their interactions. By constructing a dynamic model with endogenous content creation and AI model development, the authors unravel the impacts of the fair use standard and AI-copyrightability on AI development, AI company profit, creators income, and consumer welfare, and how these impacts are influenced by various economic and operational factors. For example, while generous fair use benefits all parties when abundant training data exists, it could hurt creators and consumers when such data is scarce. Similarly, stronger AI-copyrightability could hinder AI development, and reduce social welfare. The authors also highlight the complex interplay between these two copyright issues. For instance, when existing training data is scarce, generous fair use may be preferred only when AI-copyrightability is weak. These findings underscore the need for policymakers to embrace a dynamic, context-specific approach and provide insights for business leaders navigating the global regulatory complexities.
Authoritarian Legal (Ir)rationality: The Saga of 'Picking Quarrels' in China
Posted on Mon, Feb. 5, 2024
Jiajun Luo, The University of Hong Kong
This paper explores ongoing discussions about the authoritarian legality of the People’s Republic of China. It introduces the concept of "legal rationality," signifying a state where the discretion of dominant officials is constrained by legal rules that are publicly accessible, clear, and consistent. The author argues that legal rationality is a fundamental element for any functional legal system, even within an authoritarian framework. In doing so, the author challenges the conventional assumption of “dual state”, which posits that the existence and expansion of prerogative power in an authoritarian system are confined solely to its politicized sphere, marked by political prosecutions. Instead, the author argues that the decline of legal rationality in an authoritarian legal system leads to the arbitrary discretion of dominant officials infiltrating both political and non-political domains. It illustrates this point through the example of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a notorious catch-all crime exploited by Chinese authorities in both political prosecutions and routine criminal cases.
The Promise and Perils of China's Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
Posted on Fri, Feb. 2, 2024
Angela Huyue Zhang, The University of Hong Kong
China has been perceived as a global leader in regulating AI due to its early and comprehensive rules on algorithms, deepfakes, and generative AI services. However, this overlooks the intricate institutional dynamics within the country. The Chinese government plays multiple roles in the AI sector, including policymaker, investor, supplier, customer, and regulator. This extensive involvement, combined with factors like the US-China tech rivalry, chip embargoes, and a downturn in the Chinese economy, weaken the government’s commitment to strict regulation. Consequently, China’s overall approach to AI regulation has been business-friendly, focusing on enabling technological progress rather than providing protection for the public. As evidenced by its permissive stance on facial recognition technology, Chinese regulators have favoured a light-touch approach to AI regulation in practice. Similarly, Chinese courts are trying to prop up the AI industry, as demonstrated by the Beijing Internet Court’s decision to grant copyright to an AI-generated image. This lenient approach may give Chinese AI firms a short-term advantage over European and US counterparts, but it also risks creating regulatory lags that could escalate into AI-induced accidents or disasters. The dynamic complexity of China’s regulatory tactics therefore underscores the urgent need for increased international dialogue and collaboration with the country to tackle the safety challenges in AI governance.
Does Black-Letter Law Matter in Labor Rights Protection in China? - A Tale of Two Cities
Posted on Thu, Feb. 1, 2024
Peter Chan, City University of Hong Kong
This article discusses the role of black-letter law in labour protection in China in cases where employers dismiss employees on the grounds of serious breaches of internal regulations. It presents an empirical analysis of the judicial practice of two of China’s economically developed cities, Suzhou and Wuxi. Suzhou employers are required to give employees the opportunity to be heard prior to dismissal, while Wuxi does not. The author first introduces the Chinese labor legislation system, the dismissal system, and the two cities’ local labor regulations. After analyzing and discussing 140 cases from Suzhou and 234 cases from Wuxi, the authors concludes that giving employees the opportunity to be heard is essential for protecting their rights, as evidenced by differential success rates in the two cities. The analysis highlights the significance of black-letter law in ensuring labor protection in China.
Posted on Thu, Feb. 1, 2024
Norman Ho, Peking University
This Article examines a legal hypothetical in the Mencius text, where Mencius is asked by his disciple Tao Ying what would Emperor Shun do if his father had killed someone. By situating this legal hypothetical in premodern Chinese legal history, particularly with respect to dynastic legal developments regarding the issue of kinship and family concealment of crimes (i.e., where family members cover up crimes of other family members), this Article argues that later dynasties went further (to the extreme) in “Confucianizing the law” than what foundational thinkers like Mencius and Confucius originally advocated. The Article concludes with a brief discussion of the possible continued influence of traditional Chinese law on current PRC law in the realm of kinship/family concealment.
Unleashing the Green Principle in the Chinese Civil Code
Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2024
Jie Ouyang, University of Groningen
This comment discusses the Green Principle under the new Chinese Civil Code and its potential to embed private law into the green transition. Based on selected case law, this paper discusses the various mechanisms employed by Chinese courts to channel ecological values into civil adjudication. Through this analysis, the author hopes to position the green principle not only as part of the consitutionalisation of private law in China but also as a gateway for ecologisation of private law. China’s approach serves as an inspiring model for the greening of private law.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2024
Lacey Donley, Fort Lewis College
Joseph Legoria, Louisiana State University
Kenneth J. Reichelt, Louisiana State University
Stephanie Walton, Louisiana State University
The authors examine the impact of mounting regulator interest in US-listed Chinese firms facing PCAOB inspection access challenges. This study provides evidence of the market’s response to five events taking place from 2018 to 2020. Collectively, these events mark the first-ever integrated regulatory and legislative response from the PCAOB, SEC, and US legislature since initiation of the PCAOB’s international inspection program. First, the authors consider whether the PCAOB’s eighth annual update of inaccessible jurisdictions is newsworthy to investors. Next, they consider investors’ perceptions of audit quality risks and delisting risks among Chinese firms. The authors find that the market does respond negatively towards cross-listed Chinese firms following PCAOB, SEC, and US legislative action. Results further suggest that market reactions are motivated by investors’ perception of a delisting risk among Chinese firms. This observation is most salient among small Chinese firms having fewer listing alternatives outside of the US.
Cloud Empires’ Physical Footprint: How Trade and Security Politics Shape the Global Expansion of US and Chinese Data Centre Infrastructures
Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2024
Vili Lehdonvirta, University of Oxford
Boxi Wu, University of Oxford
Zoe Hawkins, University of Oxford
US-China technological rivalry presents dilemmas for third countries. Cloud computing infrastructure has become an acute front in this rivalry because of the infrastructural power that it affords over increasingly cloud-based economies, and because it is a control point in AI governance. The authors ask what factors explain a third country’s “cloud infrastructure alignment”—the degree to which the country’s local cloud computing infrastructure belongs to US versus Chinese providers. Three different answers are sketched: international trade, digital imperialism, third-country strategic choice. The authors find cloud infrastructure alignment is positively associated with other imports from the US or China, negatively associated with interstate disputes, and only weakly associated with security cooperation ties. The findings suggest that commercial interests and third-country strategic choice may be more influential in shaping cloud infrastructure than any imperialist expansion or containment by the superpowers.
The Legal Landscape of Surrogacy in China
Posted on Thu, Jan. 25, 2024
Yingying Wu, China University of Political Science and Law
Surrogacy has increased globally due to the development of medical technology. In light of the abolition of the one-child policy in China, demand for surrogacy among Chinese citizens has increased, especially in single-child families that would like a second child but worry about childbearing