LEGAL AND REGULATORY MODEL FOR THE AUDIT PROFESSION： THE UK AND CHINESE MODELS COMPARED

The article discusses whether the UK＇s liberal regulatory model for the audit profession could benefit China as it continues its reform towards a western-inspired liberal market economy. China has already carried out substantial reforms.＂ the disaffiliation programme, audit industry consolidation, and the diffusion of international audit norms. However, substantial deficiencies in the Chinese audit profession remain, and corporate audit continues to lack credibility. Adopting a system modelled on that used in the UK could resolve these issues. However, if China chose to adopt the UK＇s liberal regulatory model, it would not only require economic reform, but also structural reform to its political system. This would include removing conflicts of interest between the audit profession and companies controlled by public authorities; the development of an independent self-regulatory system accountable to the judiciary; corporate democratisation; the development of private enforcement and the introduction of an independent judicial system.     

INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES TO CHINA＇S INNOVATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING

After dynamic economic growth for more than 30 years, China has been increasingly pressured with the unsustainability of its extensive development model. Despite the remarkable economic growth and the party-state promotion, China is facing barriers for its economic upgrading with scientific and institutional innovation. In recent years, a series of policies and measures have been taken by the Party-State to promote country＇s innovative reorientation. However, implementation of these measures in practice is facing many institutional difficulties, which closely relate to the necessary political reform in order to liberalize people＇s creativity and entrepreneurship. The article will examine three major institutional challenges in this regard from legal perspective.＂ freedom of speech, a level playing field for free market competition, and research integrity. The author argues that the Party-State＇s support and promotion will be insufficient to build up a society with innovative capacity when the Party-State regime itself becomes an obstacle to such development. Success of China＇s innovative reorientation to a large extent depends on its political and institutional reform as well as a fair and equal competitive market system.     

LAWMAKING IN CHINA： DEVELOPMENT,ISSUES AND RETHINKING

Since the Reform and Opening period commenced, lawmaking in China has made great achievements, constructed a lawmaMng institution composed of constitution, laws, administrative and local rules and regulations as the source of law, and a legal system composed of constitutional and related law, administrative law, criminal law, civil and commercial law, economic law, social law, and procedure law. However, lawmaking in China faces new issues needing resolution. This paper focuses on the relation of lawmaking between the National People＇s Congress （PC） and its Standing Committee （SC）, between the NPC and the administrative and local organs. Because most laws are enacted by the SC with a small number of elites, but not the NPC with a large number of deputies, the challenge lies in how to represent the people and ensure the people＇s character of the laws. As the administrative and local organs enact the rules and regulations, how can their conformation to the Constitution and laws be ensured？ Is it enough to only depend on an original deliberative mechanism？ China needs to create and develop new mechanisms to resolve these issues.     

A review of developments and changes in the world＇s constitutions

The constitution is a living document, which being the case, there is a need to increase the understanding of the constitution through systematic research and teaching at various levels. This paper aims to be a catalyst that inspires creative action to claim and advance certain new constitutional rights encapsulated in various world＇s constitutions. It seeks to raise awareness of new constitutional rights. World＇s most constitutions have incorporated constitutional provisions that ensure the entrenched new fundamental human rights. The latest constitutions, including South African constitution of 1996 are advanced and have included significant number of rights which were left out in the old constitutions. The courts are given the widest possible powers to develop and forge new remedies for protection of constitutional rights and the enforcement of constitutional duties.     

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ＂MODERNITY AND CHINESE LEGAL CULTURE＂ HELD AT RENMIN UNIVERSITY OF CHINA LAW SCHOOL

The legal reform of the late Qing Dynasty that took place more than one hundred years ago has usually been considered as the starting point of the transformation and modernization of Chinese legal culture. Following that, both the Republic of China＇s legal system, and the Chinese legal system drawing on Western experience since the opening-up, have been （to a large extent） developed by the purpose of pursuing modemity. Hence, the relationship between modernity and Chinese legal culture is the crucial point in understanding the development of Chinese legal system in modem times, and also a point in comprehending the ongoing legal system construction in a global perspective.     

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS IN CHINA

Chinese scholars have carried out studies on constitutional conventions from three perspectives. The first perspective is to study in general terrr~, that is, to touch upon this theme while studying the principles and basic theories of the Constitution. The second perspective is to study while researching comparative constitutions, especially the British Constitution. The third perspective is connected with studies on constitutional resources in China. Until now there is no monograph dedicated to this theme; it is mostly seen in academic papers, textbooks and works on basic theories. Traditional studies tend to be confined to e：,~emplifying constitutional conventions and approaching this theme from a mainly static perspective that emphasizes their form of expression of an unwritten Constitution and the complementary parts of a written Constitution. Relatively, studies on the manifestations, normative characteristics, origins and evolutionary rules, as well as those on the legal and social functions of constitutional conventions are weaker. This causes a lack of explanatory power with regard to all kinds of emerging constitutional conventions in the constitutional practice of different states. In recent years this picture has changed to some extent. Chinese scholars have begun to concentrate on the origins and evolutionary rules of constitutional conventions, trying to understand accurately its legal non＇nativity and political modesty, in order to get the essence of constitutional conventions. Main areas of study in this respect will be discussed below.     

The environmental rights entered in the constitutions： A critique

Although environmental law is a relatively a new field of scholarship in South Africa, it is growing rapidly. The right to access to social security including environmental rights is found in the South African Bill of Rights, is being amplified by legislative and constitutional reforms, and developing case law in the courts. There is therefore a clear need to increase the understanding of the discipline through systematic research and teaching at various levels.1 The notion of including an “environmental right” in a domestic constitution is not novel in Africa. Most African countries have incorporated a constitutional provision that ensures the right to a healthy environment. Most of the problems that exist with environmental rights under the international and regional systems are absent under the domestic South African system. The way in which environmental rights have been formulated in international instruments, section 24 of the South African Constitution has been framed as an individual right and not as a collective one. Environmental degradation often affects groups of people and it could consequently argue that the right should protect groups and not just individuals.2     

CONTENTS

This essay applies Polanyi＇s theory of ＂double movements＂, with an emphasis on mutual transformation between state and society, to analyze China＇s staterebuilding since the economic reform and challenges it faces in the future. This paper argues that since the economic reform and before the recent turn of state governance, state-rebuilding in China has been driven by one single movement： marketization. However, since entering the 21 st century, state-rebuilding has to be undertaken in the tension between a double movement of marketization and self-protection of society which move in two different directions. To respond such a challenge, China must restructure the relationships among state, market, and society.     

THE LAWS,POLICIES, AND POLITICS OF REGULATING LEAD POLLUTION IN CHINA

This article examines the politics, laws and policies related to regulating lead pollution from lead-acid battery related manufacturing facilities in China. Particularly, this paper examines how China＇s Ministry of Environmental Protection （MEP） was able to force the temporary closure of nearly 90 percent of lead-battery manufacturing facilities within a period of months in 2011, after years of enforcement failures. The authors analyze the extent to which the Government＇s response to address lead pollution was based on laws and policies that can be systematically and consistently deployed by MEP as needed, or whether such measures are reliant on political will from outside MEP. Additionally, the authors are concerned with the extent to which China ＇s governance response to lead pollution primarily addresses environmental and public health issues; or rather it primarily addresses political and economic development issues, and whether this difference is significant. The article makes suggestions for how China can improve its environmental enforcement, and in so doing, contributes to a growing field of scholarship that examines environmental governance issues in the context of developing countries.     

THE FORMATION OF LOCAL POLITICAL PARTIES IN UNITARY STATE OF REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PERSPECTIVE

As a unitary state which adheres to the principle of local autonomy in 1945 NRI Constitution, Indonesia reflects the character of federalism in the context of the relationship between central and local. The character is reflected on more number of government affairs under the authority of the local than the central. It also reflects that Indonesia actually is a very diverse country, so the plurality must be treated with establishing a decentralized unitary state. Indonesian pluralism is also reflected in the diversity of its people political channels. Unfortunately, in this context, the party system in Indonesia is still highly centralized with the party system with national concern only. This normative law research with theoretical, normative, sociological and historical approaches finds that Indonesia, theoretically, is feasible to implement the local party system in addition to the existing national political party, because it holds the doctrine of the federalism mentioned above. Normatively, the provisions of pluralistic of Indonesia are set out in the Constitution, including provisions on local autonomy which provides a space for the pluralism. The pluralistic of the political channels is sociologically proven by more differentiation of public options in every election. Therefore, for the building of diverse and autonomous Indonesia in the future, a local party system which dichotomous with national political parties needs to be built. It serves as the basis of the strengthening of regional autonomy in the context of the Unitary State of Indonesia.     

CHINA＇S LATEST MARRIAGE LAW AMENDMENT AND FAMILY PROPERTY： TRADITION AND MODERNITY

China＇s latest Marriage Law amendment illustrates how tradition contributes to China＇s modernity. Traditionally, a house was a necessity for a marriage in China. This is because in ancient China, marriage secured the continuation of the family line and provision for ancestors. In modern China, the one child policy and soaring housing prices collectively force the ＂three families＂ to buy a house for the new couple. However, what happens when the couple divorces？ Shall the house then be considered community property？ The 2011 Judicial Interpretation of the Supreme People ＂s Court of Several Issues on the Application of the Marriage Law of the People＇s Republic of China, provides that where real estate is purchased by the parents of one party, and after the party＇s marriage is registered under the party＇s name, such real estate shall be deemed as a gift given by the parents to the party and the party＇s personal property. This interpretation represents a compromise between tradition and modernity.
The article will firstly introduce the marriage system in ancient China, illustrating that under the doctrine ofli, the real purpose of marriage was to be a bond of love between two （families of differenO surnames. Retrospectively, this secured observance of ancestral rituals in the ancestral temple, and prospectively, continuation of the family line. The house was a necessity for marriage because one of the six ceremonies required for marriage under li was the procession, and then welcome of the bride at the groom ＂s home. （Other ceremonies involved a matchmaker securing a proposal, matching auspicious birthdates, exchanging gifts between the bride＇s and groom＇s families, setting an auspicious wedding date, honoring ancestors and deities, and having an elaborate banquet）.
The article will then analyze the marriage law in the of Republic of China, in which even the post-dynasty marriage law adopted the western marriage system, the strong resistance of the old tradition forced the law-     

Informal ad hoc groupings of states as alternative means of conflict resolution： The case of ＂Contact Group＂

This paper investigates the role of informal groups, such as ＂Contact Group＂, in modem-day practice of conflict prevention, mediation, and settlement. It further aims to examine the legal status of this ad hoc grouping of states under international law, analyzing the Contact Group＇s involvement and operation in cases of Namibia （formerly South West Africa）, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. This empirical survey is instrumental to delimit and define the relationship that is created between formal and informal processes and institutions at the planetary level, as a result of the emergence and proliferation of informal ad hoc groupings of states. The bases of authority, political effectiveness, and the place and position of the Contact Group within the existing UN system of collective security are used to understand the rationale behind the formation and existence, as well as contribution and utility of such informal structures.     

CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN BURUNDI： A CASE STUDY OF PROTECTION OF REFUGEES AND IDPS IN POST-CONFLICT RECONCILIATION AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

Violations of human rights and genocide in Burundi are among the most contentious issues which continue to attract the attention of academic discourse. This paper is concerned with the question of human rights violations in Burundi from a historical and comparative perspective. It seeks to trace the root causes of Burundi＇s sullied human rights record over 52 years since independence from Belgium in 1962, the role of the military in human rights violations, including mass killings of civilians and extra-judicial executions of political opponents and the fact that the post- conflict constitutional architecture has not succeeded in establishing accountability and responsibility for these violations; in providing truth, justice and reparations to the victims and in putting an end to the culture of impunity which seems to be entrenched in Burundian society. Moreover, by analyzing critically the results from interviewing 113 Burundians and 16 non-Burundians, this paper argues that there will be no political stability enduring peace without addressing these issues in a comprehensive manner.     

Notes for Submissions

Frontiers of Law in China （FLC） is a scholarly journal （quarterly）, launched in 2006, presently co-published by Higher Education Press and Thomson Reuters. The editorial welcomes articles from scholars, researchers, legal practitioners, and postgraduates in the field of law who are interested in Chinese law and comparative law between China and other countries, and the related legal issues that explore the significance of the contemporary reform of Chinese law and Chinese legal system.     

Culture diversity and environmental protection

Just as human rights advocates have tended to place only civil and political rights onto their agendas, environmentalists have tended to focus primarily on natural resource preservation without addressing human impacts of environment abuse. As a result, victims of environment degradation are unprotected by the laws and mechanisms established to address human rights abuse. This paper will offer a brief comparative analysis of the United States＇ environment policy and a case of ASEAN implanting the concept of environmental right; discuss the traditional knowledge of indigenous population and its impact upon the environment protection; and at last recommend a model system used in China in linking cultural diversity and environmental right.     

CHINA'S PENSION CRISIS: SYSTEM REFORMS START WITH RELAXATION OF ONE-CHILD POLICY

China's one-child policy ("OCP") exacerbates the existing weaknesses within the country's pension system.1 This strict family planning measure is the root cause of sub-replacement fertility and rising dependency ratios within the country.Consequently,the one-child policy should not coexist with the nation's currently under-funded retirement security program.In order to avert an impending financial and social crisis,the Chinese government should immediately confront the issue of pension reform.However,designs to improve the retirement security framework cannot be successfully instituted unless,as an initial step,the one-child policy is relaxed.The focal point of this paper delves into the impracticality of the one-child policy in relation to China's pension reform efforts.     

THE LEGITIMACY OF RACE AS VARIABLE IN THE DELIBERATIONS OF INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS

This paper investigates the issue of race as a variable in research ethics and the extent to which it is morally appropriate to regard the race of research subjects as a relevant factor for research outcomes. The author analyses the challenges posed to deliberation in Institutional Review Boards （IRB ＇s） on this matter. The first part of the paper consists of a conceptual analysis of the notion of deliberation, drawing on the work of Elster, Habermas, Rawls, Gambetta and others. Special attention is paid to the dialogical structure of deliberation and the complexities attached to the notion of race, as a social construct. Arguments in favour and against the proposal that race is a valid variable in biomedical research are systematically distinguished. The author comes to the conclusion, based on an extensive literature review, that race sometimes has to be taken into consideration, subject to clearly stated qualifications. In conclusion it is argued that deliberation, especially about such a controversial notion such as race should not be expected to yield definitive truths. The most we can expect is a series of （hopefully） progressive settlements that represent provisional beacons of insight on which we can draw in future conversations. Race represents a field of tension and contestation that will inevitably continue to permeate interpersonal contact and social relations for the foreseeable future.     

THE ASYMMETRY OF THE WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT MECHANISM AND CHINESE STRATEGY： IN WHAT WAYS DO THE SYSTEM AND RESULTS FAVOR COMPLAINANTS？

By referring to 400 WTO cases, this paper reviews the results of WTO dispute settlement proceedings and the systemic causes in order to find out whether the WTO dispute settlement system ＂s results reflect a clear tendency of favoring complainants, and if so, whether the internal asymmetry of the system leads to such results. Based on these findings, and by considering a number of factors, this paper analyses the influence on national interests brought about by such asymmetry, so as to find whether there is a two-way adjustment effect and relative deprivation effect for developing countries. Then, according to the current economic situations of the WTO＇s Asian countries, this paper suggests that the Asian members should reform their policies to overcome the disadvantages of the WTO asymmetric proceedings. In this part, this paper comprehensively evaluates the measure of actively using the WTO dispute settlement system that favors the complainants, in order to develop overseas markets and realize potential benefits of treaty negotiations.     

THE EVOLUTION AND THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS OF CHINESE CONFLICTS LAW FOR TORTS

The legislation of choice-of-law rules for torts has a long history in China. General Principles of the Civil Law of the People＇s Republic of China of 1986 （GPCL）, Maritime Act of the People＇s Republic of China of 1992 （Maritime Act） and Act of the People＇s Republic of China on Civil Aviation of 1995 （Civil Aviation Act）provide respectively the choice-of-law rules for general tort, maritime tort and limitation of liability for maritime claims as well as tort arising out of civil aircraft. The Act of the People＇s Republic of China on the Application of Laws in Foreign-Related Civil Relations of 2010 （PIL-Act） not only brings developments and changes to conflict rules for tort in general, but also provide choice-of-law rules for product liability, infringement of the right of personality via the internet and liability arising from an infringement of intellectual property rights, which marks that Chinese conflicts law has entered into a new developmental stage and taken on several new trends： （1） Chinese conflicts law system for torts has been basically set up; （2） Chinese choice-of-law rules for torts are becoming more and more diversified,＂ （3） the prineiple of party autonomy has been fully introduced to tort liability; and （4） judicial interpretations issued or to be issued by the Supreme People＇s Court will still play an important role in judicial practice.     

RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN THE MEDIA SPACE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

The roots of armed conflicts that spread over the territory of the Former Yugoslavia in 1990＇s had been largely connected with the religious differences among members of the Orthodox Church （Serbs and Montenegrins）, the Catholic Church （Croats） and Muslims （Bosniaks）. During the time of war in the involved States （Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro）, the media significantly contributed to spread hatred and intolerance among religious groups. In the post-war period, the situation has gradually improved. So nowadays, there is a complex network of laws and rules intended to protect and respect the rights of religious minorities in Croatia. Moreover, a wide range of laws regulate the rights of religious minorities access to the Croatian public television and radio. However, despite a well-defined legal framework, religious minorities continue to be dissatisfied with the way the media deal with religion and relevant issues in practice. Their plea for impartial and neutral media is easy to undarstand if we take into consideration the fact that the media have an utmost importance in raising public awarness in the area of rights of religious minorities, the improvement of their status and tolerance of majority population in that respect.