THE CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF PRIVACY STANDARDS IN CHINA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CHINA’S PRIVACY LAW

China has one of the longest histories of civilization in the world. In ancient China, civil disputes were solved by moral principles of Confucianism, called li (礼). Therefore, at the time of the emergence of li, privacy was indirectly protected to some extent. However, li also restrained the legal privacy protection at that time. Moreover, the substantial meaning of traditional protection for privacy is quite different from that in modern society. In consequence, it is difficult to postulate that there was legal protection for privacy in ancient China, though privacy had been indirectly protected by the theory of li. If the right to privacy is seen as a milestone in its evolution in modern society, the modern concept and protection of privacy emerged in China almost a century later than in some Western countries. 1 The first consideration for the protection of privacy in China was a judicial interpretation by the Supreme Court in 1988.2 Since then, China has been developing its own protection for privacy. This article is to explore privacy standards in both ancient and modern China with two main parts: (a) The first part discusses the privacy in ancient China, including traditional Chinese concepts of privacy, traditional Chinese protection for privacy, and its evaluation; (b) the second part examines the privacy standards and privacy protection in modern China.     

SILENT CHANGES: TRANSSEXUALS’ RIGHT TO MARRY IN CHINA’S MAINLAND AND HONG KONG

In comparison to the arduous process of rights advocacy in Hong Kong, transsexuals in China’s mainland achieved their right to marry via some “silent changes”: there was no legal activism from transsexual communities, no debates or hearings in the legislature, and no landmark judgments made by the judiciary. From a perspective of comparative law, this article attempts to analyze the legal changes regarding transsexuals’ right to marry in China’s mainland in light of the struggles in Hong Kong. It endeavors to discuss to what extent the seemingly “smooth” and “unintended” way of opening up marriage to transsexuals in China’s mainland could be beneficial to trans rights and equality in general.     

THE GUIDING CASE SYSTEM IN CHINA’S MAINLAND

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.     

CHINA＇S OUTBOUND MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN THE U.S.

Although scholars have long studied the acquisition by American firms of Chinese firms in China, surprisingly little research has been undertaken about Chinese firms acquiring American firms in the U.S. The significance of Chinese outbound M＆A deals in the U.S. lies in its demonstration that no all-encompassing, reductive theory can apply to all M＆A deals. This is because in each M＆A deal considerations vary widely, and these variations are the result of different acquiring firms, target firms, and jurisdictions. China＇s outbound M＆A deals in the U.S. illustrate this point well for two reasons. Firstly, most cross-border M＆A activities involve acquiring firms from developed markets and target firms from emerging markets,＂ by contrast, Chinese M＆A activities in the U.S. exemplify emerging-market firms intending to acquire firms in a developed market. Secondly, and more importantly, while the objective among American firms in acquiring Chinese firms is acquiring market share for the most part, the goals of Chinese firms, by contrast, revolve around the more advanced technology and better management offered by American firms. Because China＇s outbound M＆A activities in the U.S. is a relatively new phenomenon, this article covers some important issues in this generally untapped area based on limited cases, data, and scholarly articles that are available.     

LEGAL EDUCATION IN CHINA： ACHIEVEMENTS,PROBLEMS AND THE FUTURE （1949-2013）

China＇s legal education had been experiencing a rather tough way of growing up after founding of PRC and did has achieved some achievements in the early days, but the following destruction period of nearly 20 years almost ruined all of them. Since the reform and opening up, China＇s legal education had been rapidly recovering and developing, there had been an unprecedented thriving scene. After constantly summing up experience, reforming and adjustment, China＇s legal education gradually stepped into independent and scientific development mode. But with the same time, behind the prosperity scene, China＇s legal education is problematic both in quantity and in quality. In quantity, the biggest problem of china＇s legal education is its imbalanced development, lies both in regional distribution and in their charging authorities. In quality, there are four serious problems which affect its healthy development： lack of professional education idea; lack of elite education idea; lack of legal ethics education and lack of professional skill education. In the future, China＇s legal education should put more efforts on resolving these problems, that is to say, more efforts should be put on the quantitative balance. Meanwhile, concerning its quality, measures will have to be taken for bringing it back to the essential attributes of legal education, only by so doing can China＇s legal education be incorporated into the mainstream of global legal education culture     

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.     

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN CHINA’S FOOD SAFETY LAW

We are living in a risk society where people devised the Precautionary Principle in order to minimize the harm caused by risk ex ante. Compared to the previous Food Hygiene Law (FHL) and the 2009 Food Safety Law, the 2015 revised Chinese Food Safety Law (FSL) made a real breakthrough in the sense that it legitimates an important principle in food safety governance. Apart from laying down the fundamental importance of this principle in food safety regulations, the FSL 2015 also invented arrangements from different aspects in order to implement this principle. In other words, the FSL 2015’s incorporation of the Precautionary Principle in a very real sense marked a transition from a demonstrative preventive food safety management regime to a more effective precautionary regime. However, the Precautionary Principle needs to be adopted in a “precautionary” way since this principle has its own limitations and defects. Incautious application of the principle may create new risks. This article compares the European approach in implementing the Precautionary Principle, and examines China’s legal arrangements against negative impacts brought by the Precautionary Principle. Three perspectives are discussed: independence of scientific institutes; proportionality in risk management measures, and the shift of burden of proof for market authorization.     

CHINA＇S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION IN FRANCHISING

Since the concept of franchising was introduced into China, the franch＆ing sector has witnessed a spectacular growth in the last decade. China today ＆ the most franchised country in the world in term of number of systems. The value and success of most franchising concepts are often substantially based on intellectual property -- primarily trademarks, trade names, copyrights, trade secrets, and patents. If a franchisor is to capitalize on the exclusivity of its unique intellectual property to provide it and its franchisees a competitive advantage, legal protection of these valuable assets is essential in China and contemplated business. The tremendous development of franchising has inevitably brought forth different kinds of problems such as the franchise contract disputes, intellectual property infringement disputes, etc. The strong growth of domestic and international franchising urges the great importance of protecting the intellectual property rights （IPRs） in China today. This paper addresses the Chinese franchising law and intellectual property law, analyzing the enforcement and protection of intellectual property law in China today in combination of some judicial cases judged by the courts. With more and more serious situation of intellectual property infringements in China it is crucial for the intellectual property rights to be maintained and safeguarded, some suggestions were put forward to protect the IPRs from the franchisors ＇perspective.     

CHINA’S WTO PARTICIPATION IN ANTI-DUMPING DISPUTES (2001–2011)

The anti-dumping war between the US and China has attracted much attention lately, especially after a March WTO ruling and a November US domestic court ruling on the issue in 2011. While the former held that the current US method of applying countervailing and anti-dumping duties simultaneously on imports from China and other non-market economies was “inconsistent” with the WTO rules, the latter ruled that such action was “illegal” under the US countervailing law. China has been one of the most frequent anti-dumping investigation targets by both developed and developing countries for decades. Although it currently has more than one hundred anti-dumping actions against its trading partners at the domestic level, China is a very new player of anti-dumping litigation at the WTO level. China filed its first WTO claim on anti-dumping in December 2007 against the US, since when it has made frequent appearance at the WTO dispute settlement in this regard. This Article examines China’s participation in anti-dumping disputes during the first ten years of its WTO membership, five as complainant and four as respondent. The alleged undervalued Chinese currency has been claimed to provide unfair price advantages to Chinese products and consequently tops trade frictions between China and its trading partners. It to some extent contributes to the rising anti-dumping disputes of China. With the continuing pressure to appreciate the Chinese currency globally as well as the current debit crisis in the EU, more anti-dumping and countervailing investigations against China are expected to emerge as countries are pushing more exports to assist the gloomy domestic economies. This becomes more likely taking into account the mounting claims on the job lost in the US due to the flux of cheap and competitive Chinese products.     

RENMIN LAW SCHOOL DELEGATION ANNOUNCED ＂ANNUAL REPORT ON THE LEGAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA＂ IN THE U.S. AND GAVE SPEECHES IN PHILADELPHIA AND WASHINTON DC

Renmin University of China Law School delegation went the U.S. in April 2014 and participated in a one-day conference in Philadelphia held by the University of Pennsylvania （UPenn） Law School and a half-day seminar in Washington DC held jointly by the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative （ABA ROLI）and UPenn Law School. The delegation is composed of Professor Han Danyuan, Dean of the Renmin Law School, Professor Zhu Jingwen, Chair of the Academic Committee, Professor He Jiahong, Director of Evidence Law Research Center, Professor Shi Yan＇an, the Vice Dean of the Renmin Law School, Associate Professor Lu Haina, Director of Human Rights Program, and Ms. Xu Fei, Project coordinator of the Intemational Office.     

RENMIN UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL WORKSHOP SERIES （REVIEW 2014） ON ZHANG TAISU AND HIS NEW CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON CHINA＇S ECONOMIC DECLINE IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

On 25 April 2014, the second Renmin University International Virtual Workshop （RUIVW）, also the inaugural Renmin-Duke Law Workshop, was held in the Renmin Law School. Professor Zhang Taisu from Duke Law School delivered a talk based on his latest work ＂Kinship, Property, and Agricultural Capitalism in Pre-Industrial China and England.＂ By comparing the two types of land transactions, the dian in China and the mortgage in England, Zhang analyzed the cultural norms leading to the differences of the above property rights and its influence on China＇s macroeconomic decline （referred to ＂decline＂）. Scholar participants spoke highly of Zhang＇s work and raised several questions on it. Gao Yangguang emphasized on the distinguished differences between the psychological needs of social groups behind the above property rights and therefore doubted their comparability in this regard. Guo Rui, the host of this workshop, commented on Zhang＇s work from company law perspective. Jiang Dong discussed the definition of ＂capitalism＂ and its role in the causation to decline. Xiong Bingwan put forward another prospective sub-connections between cultural norms and economic outcomes. You Chenjun suggested evaluation the decline from social functions of the property transactions beyond the economic level by giving the example of tan qi, a unique kind of contract in Ming and Qing China. Pan Weijiang, from Beihang University Law School, compared the concept culture in Zhang＇s work to ＂social structure＂ and suggested more explanation for the impact of the Confucian on it.     

AN EXAMINATION OF RETAIL CLIENTS’ INVESTOR SUITABILITY RULES IN THE COBS AND THE LESSONS FOR CHINA

Nowadays, the complexity of financial products makes it difficult for retail clients to identify investment risks, and there is an increasing tendency for firms, stipulated by the maximum profits, to recommend or enter into unsuitable transactions to or for retail clients while providing services of investment advice and portfolio management, which causes great losses to a significant number of investors. So, in the contemporary society, the investor suitability rules through which retail clients can purchase suitable financial products are the indispensable legal basis of investor protection. Currently, the regulations concerning investor suitability management in China have several problems, including the chaotic legal system, low effectiveness level and defective contents, which may make it difficult for suitability to be applied in justice and managed effectively. Since the UK’s investor suitability rules in the Conduct of Business Sourcebook that apply to retail clients whose contents include requirements of obtaining retail clients’ information, requirements of information to be provided to retail clients and criteria of assessing suitability are clear and comprehensive, the authors believe that the UK’s experiences can provide a great enlightenment for China to better investor suitability management rules, including integrating legal documents and optimizing effectiveness level, rationalizing application scope, adding criteria of assessing suitability and revising specific clauses.     

FOCUS： PUNITIVE DAMAGES IN CHINA EDITOR＇S NOTE

Tort Law of the People＇s Republic of China provided for punitive damages for the first time in Article 47 Chapter 5, although the existing consumer protection law, contract law and intellectual property law contained similar institutions. The direct reason for the introduction of this exotic institution, imported from USA, lies primarily in the Sanlu milk powder scandal Many questions, such as its conformity with the current Chinese legal system, its application, and its likely influence on Chinese adjudication, still remain unclear.     

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-     

SPORTS TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AND ITS REGULATION IN INDONESIA （STUDIES IN THE PROVINCE OF LAMPUNG）

The aims of this paper are to explain about the potency of sports tourism in Province of Lampung and the role of local government to manage it. Geographically, Province of Lampung has the potential exercise of this type, i.e., surfing on the West Coast which faced with the Indonesian Ocean. Sports＇ diving is currently developed in the Kiluan Bay in Pesawaran District. Research questions of this paper are.＂ How is the relationship with the organization of sports events tourism and economic potential？ And how is the role of local government in the implementation of the sport in their region？ This paper uses the literature study methods, so that the data obtained is secondary data. Literatures related to this paper include the official report and the study of literature related to sports and tourism. Conclusions of this paper are.＂ （1） Organizing sports tourism will increase local revenues, especially from the economic sector transaction turnover. An example of this is that the hotel occupancy rate increased with the sporting event. At the macro level, sports tourism impact multiplayer effect, i.e. for people who can catch the tourist potential opportunities, such as selling food （culinary）, and local souvenirs,＂ and （2） Local governments have a role in the development of sports tourism and tourist destinations, with plans in the local regulation. Local governments also play a role in building transport and communications infrastructure in the region as a tourist destination attraction. Tourism promotion should also be enhanced to introduce a tourist destination to the tourists.     

THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW AND ITS EFFECT ON WITNESSES’ CONFIDENCE

Today there is ample evidence that the Cognitive Interview (CI) enhances witnesses’ memory. However, less is known about how the CI affects eyewitnesses’ confidence. To address this shortcoming we conducted a study analyzing how realism in confidence was affected by the CI. All participants (n=79) were first shown a filmed kidnapping. After 2 weeks we interviewed one-third of the participants according to the guidelines of the CI, one-third according to a Standard Interview (SI), and one-third were not interviewed at all (Control condition). Participants in all three conditions were then asked to answer 45 forced-choice questions, and to give a confidence judgment after each choice. For the 45 questions, no differences in accuracy were found between the three conditions. Confidence was higher in the CI and SI conditions, compared with the Control condition. CI and SI did not differ in metacognitive realism but both showed lower realism compared with the Control condition, although only CI significantly so. The results indicate that the inflation in confidence is more likely to be explained in terms of a reiteration effect, than as a consequence of the particular mnemonics characterizing the CI (e.g. “mental reinstatement of context”). In sum, CI does not seem to impair (or improve) the realism in witnesses’ confidence, and does not inflate confidence in erroneous recall, compared to a SI.     

NET NEUTRALITY AND COMPETITION LAW： NEW BUSINESS MODELS AND CHANGING REGULATORY APPROACH IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The first part of the paper deals with the background of the net neutrality debate and draws the conclusion that allowing the emergence of specialized service agreements provided by the Internet access service providers might be reasonable from an economic point of view, but several risks are associated with them from the perspective of competition law. The second part of the paper discusses how these agreements may distort competition and how European competition law might assess these problems.