As a holistic right, the right to equal development emphasizes equity of opportunities for development in economic, social, cultural and political fields among subjects of present and future generations at different regions. Right to equal development may receive theoretical support from ideas of social solidarity, global justice, inclusive growth and traditional culture of China. China engages in the realization of the right to equal development in five models, namely cooperation among local governments, interaction between public power and private rights, sustainable development, holistic development and government intervention.
The birth of the right to development (RTD) shifted the paradigm of international discourse from need, charity, and aid towards human rights, shared responsibilities, and cooperation. The implementation of RTD requires effective development policies at the national level, and equitable economic relations and a favorable economic environment at the international level. From the new theory perspective, RTD is a type of integrated human rights, charazterized by integration feature and process-oriented approach, by the method of dialogue, in order to achieve the idea of equilibrium. It would be ideal to overcome the dilemma of implementing RTD based on overall strategic framework and improve the legal and judicial reform in the context of globalization. However, for the developing countries that have been struggling to change the unequal international political and economic order, it is the core driving force of realizing RTD in the process of deepening dialogue and negotiations, which is reflected in the process of legal and judicial reform. Therefore, it is necessary for us to change the strategy from legislative base to judicial focus, from one-way path to plural view, exploring the possibility of new model to realize the RTD in the context of comprehensive judicial reform.
While history records that economically motivated crime and misconduct in its various forms has existed since the earliest civilizations and has always raised issues of fairness and integrity, in recent years additional concerns have come to the fore. Economic stability particularly in an interdependent world, has thrown up issues related to stability and security. The tools that have been developed to address certain manifestations of economic misconduct and in particular the development of financial intelligence are now used across a much broader spectrum than merely the control of fraud and corruption. We use, for example, the regimes that have been designed to identify suspect wealth for a variety of purposes including the raising of revenue which have less relevance to the direct interdiction of financial crime. This paper considers from a practical rather than conceptual standpoint how best to address the risks and issues thrown up by economically motivated crime and also the mechanisms that have been adopted to address it. In particular it seeks to examine various ways in which economically motivated crime may be better discouraged and its impact mitigated. It does not pretend to be a deeply conceptual analysis of the relevant law given its aspiration to have a wider significance and purchase than one jurisdiction. What it does do, however, is to seek to build upon practical experience and apply it to the fashioning of enhanced weapons in the fight against economic crime.
China’s project of the rule of law is destined to have its Chinese characteristics. China also needs to think about of the way of developing its own model of the rule of law so as to achieve a rule of law society that is universal in modern society. Many rule of law countries, such as England, Germany and France, started their rule of law project with their own model. China should learn from the merits of these different models. Nevertheless, China should also try to solve the key problem of the rule of law, which is the energizing of the enforcement of the Chinese Constitution.
In recent years, with the disclosure of wrongful convictions in the media, the topic has become a focus of attention in China. Those wrongful convictions led people to ask: What is going wrong in Chinese criminal justice system? Since late 1995, the author of this article led a group of researchers and embarked upon an empirical study of wrongful convictions in China. According to our study, false confessions extracted with torture are a major evidential cause, or direct cause, for wrongful convictions in China. However, there are indirect causes behind the problem of torture in the criminal proceedings. They are the nominal checks among the police, the procuratorate and the court; the bowing to public opinions in contradiction to legal principles; the unlawfully extended custody with tunnel vision; the nominalization of courtroom trials; and the reducing of punishment in a case of doubt. These causes of wrongful convictions reflect the institutional flaws, outdated mentalities, and improper practices in Chinese criminal proceedings.
Chinese local governments have taken many rural lands in order to promote urbanization and modernization of the local rural areas, which, unfortunately, has given rise to many social conflicts. The current Chinese land taking laws have provided some guidance on the use of taking power, including the public interest requirement and the compensation requirement. However, these requirements are still insufficient. As can be observed from a series of cases, the fragmented ownership of rural residents caused a problem of anticommons, leading to huge transaction costs in the negotiation between governments and villagers. The mechanism of Land Assembly Districts, proposed by Professor Michael Heller and Ricks Hills, might be an effective way to handle this problem, since it can produce a relatively fair compensation for villagers, facilitate dialogue and communication, and prevent opportunism. This article considers the possibility of adopting this proposal by allowing the village committee to act collectively to negotiate the level of compensation with the Chinese local governments. This approach might effectively resolve numerous conflicts that arose in Chinese land taking events. The article also addresses the potential concern that the collective action might infringe upon the property rights of some dissenting villagers, from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
The negotiation of the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) has been in process since May 2005 and has survived two changes of government in Australia. The negotiations have been on and off for many years. Recent development, however, indicates that the two countries are finally close to strike a deal. This paper examines the difficulties that bedevilled the negotiation process and how the circumstances have changed now. It also examines the way forward from both Australia and China’s perspectives.
This article discusses the restructuring of the Chinese intellectual property rights (IPR) regime by addressing the dilemmas of the Chinese IPR regime, namely, enhanced IPR legislation versus weak enforcement, trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights plus (TRIPS+) arrangements versus lack of traditional knowledge (TK) protection, unified state agencies versus interests of other nationalities. This article also proposes that China should fully participate in the process of international IPR rule making, resist TRIPS+ moves in cooperation with other TK rich states, promote TK protection, and modify administrative structures to incorporate the interests of all nationalities in China by reforming the state agencies to guarantee proper minority representation, fulfill China’s promise to the international conventions regarding minority representation, establishment of NGOs for diversity purposes, emphasis on TK protection, and promotion of setting up education programs.