While the procurement of state enterprises is one of the most contentious issues for China’s GPA accession negotiation, the regulation on such procurement is also of concerns under domestic law. From the Chinese domestic perspective, this Article first analyses the extent to which the procurement of state enterprises is regulated by national, ministerial, as well as firm-level procurement rules. On that basis, the incentives for adopting a principled approach to regulating such procurement are explored, such as value for money, preventing corruption, and fighting against local protectionism. A brief suggestion is made regarding the consolidation of the existing rules in the context of complicated underlying institutional framework.
The source of the struggling legal regulation of executives’ pay in state-owned enterprises is that the executives of most state-owned enterprises are not selected from the personnel market but are appointed by the administrative agencies, which gives government departments in charge sufficient legal premises to regulate their pay externally. However, the strict broad-brush administrative regulations and policies intensified the irrelevance between executives’ pay and their business performance. It is necessary to classify the way and the extent to regulate executives’ pay in state-owned enterprises according to its different nature and function. It is also necessary to re-modify the strict control of executives’ pay policy on competitive state-owned enterprises. To achieve selection from the human resources market, we have to improve the market-based mechanism of pay contractual arrangements and implementation between the enterprise and the executives, and then ultimately achieve a high relevancy between the executives’ pay and the performance of management. The role of law is to guide, ensure and enhance this correlation.
China is suffering severe soil contamination, but no specific national legislation has been adopted to address this issue. Under the current regulatory framework, there are numerous relevant provisions on contaminated land management. It is recommended that a specific legislation should be promulgated at the national level to improve the current situation. Foreign experiences should be considered in China’s specific social environmental context. A proper liability mechanism should be established for a better judicial treatment to contaminated land issues. While a proper contaminated land liability mechanism is being developed, the principles of state liability and retroactive liability, and the principle that polluters pay should be followed. Public participation should be encouraged in contaminated land management.
The philosophy of binary purpose in conjunction with a holistic approach reflects sustainable development. These ideas are in accordance with Chinese traditional philosophy and culture, as well as the contemporary economic and social development. It calls for the central government’s support to achieve sustainable development at the initial stage. However, in the long run, this approach has drawbacks which are concealed. Thus, prompt adjustment is needed. In the relationship between the systems of sustainable development and democracy, human rights, sovereign equality of states, and sustainable development are approbated by the Chinese law system. The bottleneck of sustainable development is linked to its ideological system. Integration is related to the bottleneck of binary purposes, good governance, public participation, and human rights. The government-oriented mechanism has a time element that is related to the bottleneck of utilitarianism and basic economic law. For China’s sustainable development, breaking the bottleneck to improve the system and seizing the opportunity to make innovations are of great significance. The focal points now for China are the perfection of legislation, supervision to government, encouraging public participation and empowering them with legal rights. Chinese government is taking green economy as a new action of implementing sustainable development. It stems from both domestic and international pressures which deepen the economic reform required to switch the economic development mode. These pressures are bringing new opportunities and vigor to China’s sustainable development.
China’s new private international law adds choice of law provisions for property. Most of the provisions are innovative. They further clarify the general legal provisions applicable to property with a focus on regulating movable property and commercial securities. The choice of law rules for property comply with relevant international legislation as far as possible. At the time, certain individual provisions are not well drafted and they are inconsistent with current domestic substantive laws. The principle of parties’ autonomy was first introduced to the field of “movable property” and “movable property in transit,” but it seems goes too far. In light of the gradual opening up of China’s securities market, the new law stipulates applicable laws to commercial securities, but it did not take into account the indirect holding system of securities.
The establishment of equator principles is a landmark in the financial market and even in the history of financial development. As their extensive application in the market of project finance, equator principles have gradually become the industrial standard and international conventions of project finance. However, compared with traditional legislations, equator principles are norms of self-regulation without the involvement of national forces, and their general principles and legitimacy source definitely break a new path. The evolution of equator principles experienced three phases: emergence, popularity and internalization, and the attribute of advocates of regulations, during which the nature of regulations and the character of financial industry played key roles. Meanwhile, factors such as “power,” mutual benefits, co-determination, effectiveness and even internalization of regulations by international financial companies, constitute the “legitimacy” source of equator principles. Besides, pointing at the defect of “norms of self-regulation,” advocates and practitioners endeavor to improve the “legitimacy” of equator principles.
Catastrophe insurance and its establishment in China has attracted public concerns in recent years, especially after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province, the 2010 Yushu earthquake in Qinghai province and the Zhouqu devastating mudslide in Gansu province. Based on the problems of catastrophe insurance, the discussions and practices in domestic academic field have provided a amount of theoretical preparation for its development in China. However, there are inadequacies during the process. In particular, Chinese domestic scholars have not defined clearly the notion and connotation of catastrophe insurance, and confused it with commercial insurance and social insurance. This paper focuses on the connotation and values of catastrophe insurance in the first place. Furthermore, based on the lessons of catastrophe insurance systems abroad, the Author argues for the basic principles and path to reconstruct the catastrophe insurance system with Chinese characteristics.
The conflict between traditional knowledge (TK) holders and users is the main issue, which is discussed among international organizations for the disputes are growing between TK holders. Cross border ethnic groups, in particular, will be spotlighted in the world for traditional medicine (TM) that they hold establishing state sovereignty on traditional medicine, and constructing a three-win’s system and mechanism for cooperation between countries would be the best solution.
Shareholder democracy reflects the very nature of company. There are many legal mechanisms for shareholders to exercise their rights, one of which is electronic proxy solicitation. Internet technology has provided a great facility for corporate governance and shareholder democracy. This paper advocates that electronic proxy solicitation will improve shareholder democracy effectively, and China should establish a relevant legal regime. It discusses the feasibility of establishment and the mode of legislation on electronic proxy solicitation regime, and proposes a preliminary definition of the rules of electronic proxy solicitation regime in China.