The aim of this article is to give an overview of the tasks and the function of the Supreme Court of Justice in interaction with the other two “Highest Courts” of the Republic of Austria on the one hand, and the European Court of Human Rights as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union on the other hand. For this purpose introductory remarks will examine the Austrian understanding of the judiciary as a state power and judicial independence. The closing part of the article will particularly look into the role of the Supreme Court as highest instance in criminal matters.
As a social norm, law in a democratic society should be established in the form of positive law by collecting opinions of people. In order for the rule of law to be properly practiced in a democratic country, the doctrine of separation of powers requires that the legislative, executive, and judicial functions should not be consolidated in a single body. However, even within a perfectly established legislative system, the principle of the rule of law may be distorted depending on the role of the judiciary. The experience of the Korean judiciary shows that even though it is designed to be a completely independent organ of the lawmaking National Assembly and the law-enforcing executive branch; it would fail to properly give effect to the country’s governing principle of the rule of law. It may be thought that the fundamental reasons lie in the endemic tendency towards the rule of man in East Asian societies. Nowadays, those who received education in a democratic society without experiencing the authoritarianism have begun to make inroads into the leadership of the judicial branch. They can be firmly determined to prevent freedom and rights of every single person from being infringed upon. In this way, they can be confident that the judiciary has fulfilled its roles in shaping a democratic country where the rule of law is exercised properly as a governing principle.
This article unpacks the concept of the rule of law by distinguishing five distinct meanings of the term. These are: (1) the rule of practical wisdom, (2) the rule of the law, (3) rule by law, (4) the rule of law as a principle of constitutionalism, and (5) the rule of law as a power-building technique. It suggests that unless the particular meaning being used is clarified, discussion of the concept is likely to generate more heat than light.
Starting from the establishment of the guiding case system in December 2010, the Supreme People’s Court of China has issued 31 guiding cases. This article discusses the background, purposes and functions, ways to function, and effects of the guiding case system. It compares it with ancient Chinese guiding case systems, and the common law system from these perspectives. Based on the analysis of these comparisons, this article argues that the current guiding case system is neither an extension of the ancient Chinese guiding case systems nor a transplant of the common law system. However, the current guiding case system and common law system have the tendency to become more and more similar systems in reality.
Whistleblowing is one tool, among many others, to prevent, deter and detect violations of the law or of the firm’s own ethical norms. This article presents proposals to set up an effective internal whistleblowing platform within a firm. These proposals outline the procedures that should be followed to handle whistleblowing reports. In addition, the article explains how an internal department or an externalized service should be set up to process these reports. The purpose of these proposals is to reach a satisfactory compromise between the interests of the firm in having its own values upheld, the interests of the State in securing compliance with the laws, the interests of the employees in working in an honest and safe environment, the interests of other stakeholders to be treated fairly and finally, the interests of denounced parties not to be wrongly accused.
Even though China’s first Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) was effective on August 1, 2008, the implementation of Article 55 has been delayed until 2014 when several actions were taken. For examples, several foreign giant intellectual property holders were investigated for possible abuse of their intellectual property rights and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce released the Rules on Prohibiting Conducts of Abusing Intellectual Property Rights by Excluding or Restricting. The underlying message is obvious: China starts to pay more and more attention to the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights on the one hand, she decides to seriously deal with the abuse of intellectual property rights by intellectual property owners, especially those giant international companies. Because the issue of how to balance the tension between IP law and the AML is a new topic in China, this paper intends to outline the prevailing experiences from foreign jurisdictions especially from the United States and European Union and to propose some useful strategies and approaches, which are fit into China’s reality.
Compared with conventional investigation methods, special investigative techniques are specific investigation measures that are conducted without informing the parties being investigated. Although these measures are effective means for fighting crimes, they can also easily violate human rights. Before the modification of the Criminal Procedure Law of China in 2012, only the State Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, the People’s Police Law of the People’s Republic of China, and the departmental rules enacted by the Ministry of Public Security contained provisions on special investigative techniques. However, in practice, special investigative techniques have been widely employed to investigate hidden crimes or major complex crimes, such as crimes endangering state security, organized crimes, and drug-related crimes. To standardize the use of special investigative techniques, the Criminal Procedure Law of China has included a new paragraph about special investigative techniques, including technical investigation measures, hidden identity investigation, and controlled delivery. And the Procedure Rules for Public Security Organs Handling Criminal Cases (2012) and the Tentative Rules for Criminal Procedure of People’s Procuratorate (2012) provide some supplemental provisions. Although the importance of special investigative techniques stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Law should be affirmed and approved, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law and the relevant interpretations are too simple and too principled, which will likely lead to the improper application or abuse of special investigative techniques. Rules regarding which types of cases and under which conditions special investigative techniques are appropriate, the necessary approval procedures, and the legal consequences and relief mechanisms for illegal special investigative techniques should be clarified or added to promote the legalization of special investigative techniques — by striking a balance between power authorization and power control as well as between the values of crime control and human rights protection.
This article intends to shed light on key legal issues that emerged from the recently released WTO Appellate Body’s adjudication over China — Rare Earths dispute, exploring possible policy options for China to reach its environmental goals on natural resources in a WTO-consistent manner. The article first spotlights positive variations in the Appellate Body’s interpretative approach regarding the applicability of GATT general exceptions to defend the violation of WTO-Plus commitments under China’s Accession Protocol; second, given the fact that the Appellate Body, pursuant to the elements inscribed in GATT Article XX(g), confirmed the Panel’s objective assessment based on the design and structure of the challenged measures of GATT, this paper provides reflections and recommendations on China’s domestic environmental legislation. The third part probes into the interface between the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the WTO legal regime, with an attempt to offer thought-provoking ideas on how to reconcile potential conflicts between the two.