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.     

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.     

THE ACT OF THE PEOPLE＇S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE （ THE DRAFT PROPOSAL） I. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PEOPLE＇S REPUBLIC OF CHINA＇S ACTIONS ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE

I. The Necessity of Legislation. -- As the largest developing country, China has the most greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Therefore, the world, including America, pays close attention to China＇s policies regarding the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the continuous growth of global warming, China＇s policies for controlling greenhouse gas emissions should be consistent and ruled by law. So it is necessary to enhance the establishment of laws and systems for standardizing settlement.     

海外并购：TCL并不是最后的输家

从几年前TCL、联想所进行的跨国并购，到如今国开行、平安保险和中国投资公司（简称中投公司）所做的海外投资，中国企业已经在制造业、资源类和金融业等多个领域展开了国际收购和投资。虽然中国公司海外投资的总额依然不高，但增长迅速，且正在引起人们越来越多的注意。     

REVIEW OF THE 7TH NATIONAL MEMBERS＇ CONGRESS OF CHINA＇ S LAW SOCIETY

From November 29 to 30, 2013, the 7th National Members＇ Congress of China Law Society was held in Beijing. The leaders of the Cortmmnist Party of China （CPC）, Xi Jinping, Zhang Dejiang,     

跨国并购忧思录：刀尖上的舞蹈

日韩的一些企业跨国并购最终失败，让世界看到的只是一群在刀尖上跳舞的“敢死队”，这不得不令人为海外并购热潮中的中国企业感到担忧。     

美国对外资并购的管赦及中国的对策

随着全球经济的发展，跨国并购的浪潮方兴未艾，中国也由被并购转向主动进行海外并购。然而，各国对外资并购的管制制度都相当严格，尤其是美国等发达国家。本文从中海油并购优尼科案的失败入手，研究美国的外资并购管制制度，并提出几点拙见完善中国的立法，以期对中国企业未来的海外并购之路有所帮助。     

蒋耀平：有勇有谋应对跨国并购

外资并购仅仅是中国企业国际化的一个阶段，中国企业要学会在相互衬托的前提下参与全球竞争，有勇有谋地参与海外并购。     

FOCUS： PUNITIVE DAMAGES IN CHINA PUNITIVE DAMAGES,CHINESE TORT LAW,AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

In a country such as China, with abundant consumer products and the inevitability of product defects, claims for punitive damages are sure to arise under Article 47 of the new Chinese Tort Law. Article 47 provides that ＂（w）hereany producer or seller knowingly produces or sells defective products, causing death or serious damage to the health of others, the injured party may request appropriate punitive damages.＂ As Chinese jurists and scholars interpret Article 47, they may wish to consider whether lessons can be drawn from the American experience. During the past two decades, few areas of American law have changed more radically than the law on punitive damages. While there were once few restraints on the ability of a judge or jury to impose punitive damages in a case involving egregious conduct, today there are a host of limitations embodied in American state and federal law. In many American states, statutes or judicial decisions restrict the ability of a court to award punitive damages by narrowly defining the types of conduct that will justify a punitive award, raising the standard of proof capping the amount of punitive damages, requiring a portion of a punitive award to be forfeited to the state, or limiting vicarious liability for punitive damages. In addition, under federal constitutional law, the principle of due process limits the imposition of punitive damages by scrutinizing the ratio between compensatory and punitive damages and prohibiting an award to be based on harm to persons other than the plaintiff. An examination of these developments from a comparative law perspective may prove useful to the implementation of Article 47.     

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.     

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     

CHINA LAW DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2012： PROFESSIONALIZATION OF CHINA＇S LEGAL WORKERS

“China Law Development Report 2012： Professionalization of China ‘s Legal Workers” publishing conference was held on 4 May 2013, in Beijing. This is the fourth report on China Law Development published by Renmin University of China, following Report 2007 on database and indicators, Report 2010 on law-making, and Report 2011 on law-enforcement, Report 2012 focuses on the following aspects according to professor ZHU Jingwen, chief editor of the report.     

TOWARDS A NEW CONCESSIONS REGIME IN THE EU： ABOUT THE MERITS AND SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CONCESSIONS＇ DIRECTIVE

The European Commission published a proposal at the end of2011 for a self-standing directive on the awarding of concessions in the context of the revision of the public procurement framework. With the aim of harmonizing rules and developing minimum standards based on the EU primary law and ECJ case law, the purpose of the proposed directive was, according to the Commission, to ensure more transparency and legal certainty in all Member States in awarding concessions and enhance the development of PPPs （Public-Private Partnerships） 1 However, negotiations on the proposal for a concessions directive proved to be difficult. The text2 finally adopted on February 26, 2014 stems from three compromises： 1. Within the European Commission, between a fully fledged approach and a so-called ＂light approach ＂; 2. within the Council between Member States in favor of a detailed directive for the sake of easy transposition, and Member States reluctant to the very directive, whose added value was challenged either by fear of amending their own existing national legislation on concessions or, conversely, by fear of putting at risk existing contracts awarded without open tender; 3. within the European Parliament, as the rather technical issue of public procurement became a politically driven debate on both the principle of subsidiarity and the legitimacy of private operators to manage services of general interest. As a result of a complex deal brokered by the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament, the main merit of the directive is its existence. In the light of the numerous exclusions to its scope, it remains to be seen whether some of its promising provisions regarding the definition, the award and the life of concessions will facilitate on the ground the development of transparent, performing concessions projects. At the end of the day, options to be embraced by the Member States for the transposition of the concessions directive will be a key element in the success and use of the new legal concessions reg     

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS,ACADEMIC DEBATES AND LEGAL PRACTICES ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW IN CHINA： 2000--2013

A special system of constitutional review, namely National People＇s Congress Review Model （the NPC Review Model） has been established since the 1982 Constitution. However, this system was criticized for its inactivity and has never been actually activated. After 2000, there are lots of efforts try to improve the system of constitutional review of China, the results of the Qi Yuling case （2001） and the Luoyang seed case （2003） demonstrated that the U.S.-style of constitutional review is not and will not be accepted by the political system of China, while the results of the Sun Zhigang case （2003） and the Tang Fuzhen case （2009） proved that the existing NPC Review model cannot work very well if political leaders refuse to reform it. However, the experiences of the New Model of Parliamentary Sovereignty which was developed from Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canberra （the Australian Capital Territory）, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China after 1980s, showed that a third way to protect human rights in a liberal democracy and to coordinate the relationship between legislature and court in a system of constitutional review. I believe the third way provides a good case for China to reform the existing constitutional review system without abandon its cherished tradition of the system of people ＇s congress.     

跨国并购重在文化整合

海尔和中海油无奈中退出竞购的主因,是“非市场偏见”,也是民意舆论;而民意舆论正是一种文化文化是一个国家的身份证。从TCL收购法国汤姆逊旗下的电视机制造业务,合资组建TTE开始,人们就不时听到中国企业海外并购的消息,并购的每一个案都一波三折,有的成功     

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.     

去海外抄底别忘了带律师

许多中国企业在金融危机中看到了海外抄底的良机,对隐含其中的法律风险却知之甚少2009年5月25日,由美富律师事务所主办的中国企业并购研讨会在北京举行,来自各界的并购专家共同探讨了全球金融危机背景下的中国企业海外并购。