Based on copyright law and its jurisprudential basis in the late 19th century of China, this article is focused on the external conditions affecting or restricting the formation and development of copyright law during this period, and also reviews the tortuous process of copyright law and theories in China, and explores the underlying influences of Chinese traditional culture and other elements. Furthermore, it analyses the significant influences of western copyright concepts on the practical development of Chinese copyright protection system. Last but not least, it argues the fundamental barriers to the development of copyright law in China resulting from the persistent gap between the notions that forced upon the legal system and those embodied in social axiology, and the conflicts and tensions induced have affected both the law making and enforcement in copyright.
Upon entry into the vision of scholars in international relations, game theory has quickly become an effective approach to analyzing international conflicts and cooperation, and has been broadly adopted by neo-realism and neo-liberalism, which are two dominating aspects in the current theories of international relations. The former argues that the states participating in the game always follow relative gains, hence achieving a pessimistic conclusion on international cooperation, while the latter argues that the states participating in the game always follow absolute gains and deduces an optimistic prospect for international cooperation, which provides a useful way to analyze the confrontation and cooperation of states in international legislative game. Of course, it is aware that gain preference and choice of action by states in international legislative game are also conditioned by other factors.
The term “super-national treatment” is used as a popular legal term in China. However, its definition and relationship with national treatment obligations have been highly debated. After tracking its history, comparing with the general meaning of national treatment in the context of international law, especially of the law of WTO (World Trade Organization)law, it shows that super-national treatment is a misconception of national treatment. With the gradual repeal of the preferential treatment of foreign-funded enterprises in China, super-national treatment, as a misleading legal term, should come to the end.
Recently one of the big charges raised mainly by the US against RMB exchange rate is the so-called undervaluation of RMB exchange rate as constituting a subsidy for China’s exports, the US even threatens to refer it to international or domestic settlement. However, the study on the provisions of subsidy, i.e., financial contribution, benefit conferral and specificity, the SCM Agreement indicates that RMB exchange rate neither constitutes financial contribution in art. 1.1 of the SCM Agreement, nor comes in line with the listings of the Illustrative List of the Agreement. The prevailing exchange rate of RMB is the only benchmark for the measurement of the value of RMB except that no other methods are available to be used to properly determine whether RMB exchange rate confers any benefit to exporters. As regards specificity requirement, RMB exchange rate is unspecific, on the contrary, it is among the policy measures for the government to regulate economy.
Death penalty has no alternative. Life sentence without parole (LWOP) has been put forward to nullify the death penalty in China. Practically speaking, LWOP can satisfy the emotional demand of the public so as to nullify the death penalty. LWOP has strong rationales from both retributive and preventive perspectives. Actually, the relation between death penalty and LWOP is just a question, which should be at the top of the levels of punishment. Compared with death penalty, LWOP has other advantages such as lower cost burden and more practicability.
The Kyoto Protocol has established emission abatement and carbon sink increase to cope with climate change. However, in recent years, developed countries tend to focus more on the former. The simplifying of GHG causes has posed challenges for the understanding of climate change issues and for the development of consequent counter-measures, leading to present controversy and dilemma over mechanisms to combat global climate change. It is held that a desirable global cooperative stance should be “harmonious but differentiated,” i.e., the division of responsibilities and co-operation among the countries should be conducted after the diversities of different countries are recognized in terms of climate change, interests and functions. To meet this end, it is necessary to have UNFCCC play a leading role, under which emission abatement, carbon sink and water cycle improvement are concurrently reinforced. Under this triple mechanism, industrialized countries ought to continue to take the lead in emission abatement, while developing countries, especially those with great potentialities to strengthen carbon sink and water conservancy, ought to conduct ecological preservation and to develop hydraulic capacity so as to strengthen the natural carbon cycle and water cycle to combat climatic impacts.