MEDICALLY ASSISTED HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES (ART) AND HUMAN RIGHTS — THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

The present article examines how the progress of science, and in particular, medically assisted human reproductive technologies (ART) have provoked a revolution in the sphere of family relations, generating a series of ethical and legal conflicts. The article focuses on the European perspective, without ignoring the international sphere, given the globalization of the phenomenon. The emerging legal issues are analyzed through the filter of international human rights, not only an important aspect to take into consideration in the context of bioethics in general, but a “passage obligé” given that certain concepts find their explanation and coordinates in international human rights law. It is from this perspective that the relationship between ART and human rights is presented. The applicable international and European legal instruments and principles shall be mentioned, as well as a brief comparison of national legal frameworks in Europe. The emerging bioethical and legal issues are examined in correlation with the response of the European Court of Human Rights through its case law aimed at balancing conflicting rights when faced with issues pertaining to ART. Lastly, the article presents in more detail the particular legal issues under debate in France and Italy, two European countries with specific legislation in the field.     

Responsibility Beyond Borders: State Responsibility for Extraterritorial Violations by Corporations of International Human Rights Law

States routinely provide support and assistance to their corporate nationals in their global trade and investment ventures. While states may not intend to allow corporate nationals to violate human rights in their extraterritorial operations, by their actions or omissions, states may facilitate, or otherwise contribute to, a situation in which such violations by a corporation occur. This article investigates the extent to which the extraterritorial activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) that violate international human rights law can give rise to home state responsibility. The analysis shows that home states of TNCs have obligations under international law in certain situations to regulate the extraterritorial activities of corporate nationals or the latter's foreign subsidiaries and can incur international responsibility where they fail to do so.     

论植物人的法律人格及权利行使和保护

Although human vegetables lose their capacities of will and do not have the intrinsic attribute of civil subjects, they still have legal personalities and the status of civil subjects. The law has not provided for defects of their legal personalities, and thus civil law shall include human vegetables as objects of guardianship. The system of adult guardianship shall be constructed to supplement and correct the legal personalities of human vegetables. When human vegetables enter into a permanent vegetative state or state of brain death, law may declare the termination of legal personalities of the human vegetable. Due to the unique life state and capacity of act of human vegetables, the exercise of their civil rights faces a series of legal difficulties and challenges, mainly involving important issues such as the right of treatment for life rescue, marital right and reproductive right. The civil law shall ensure that the civil right of human vegetables can be fully enjoyed and effectively protected. Zhang Li, associate professor in civil and business law at Fujian Normal University, and also an invited researcher on civil law, international economic law and international private law, co-operated with Law School of Renmin University of China. Till now, she’s already released 23 theses in law journals and a monograph of the Survey of International Private Law. In addition, she was a member in doing studies (2006) on the legislation of Chinese tort law and presides over the researching (2007) of the legal personality and rights of disabled persons.     

论公司法与民法典的良性互动关系

《公司法》与《民法典》无缝对接、有机衔接、同频共振、相辅相成《民法典》中的基本原则普适于公司法律关系,诸项具体制度也可补充适用。《公司法》对特定事项有规定、而《民法典》无规定时,应适用《公司法》。两法对特定事项均有规定、但相抵触时,应优先适用《公司法》。两法对法人制度的规定详略不同、但不相抵触时,应优先适用《公司法》。两法在很多公司法案件中可兼容并用,协同共治,互不排斥。平等、自愿、公平、诚信、公序良俗、绿色、关怀弱势群体和禁止权利滥用共同构成民法八项基本原则。而公司法有其独特原则,如等价有偿、尊重与保障公司的生存权与发展权、慎重解散公司、坚持商业模式的包容性、促进公司的三重营利性、弘扬股权文化、鼓励公司社会责任和构建新型亲清政商关系原则。要尊重《公司法》的特别法地位,必须切实扭转司法实践中的“轻公司法化”现象。修改《公司法》和解释《民法典》应着眼于消除规范冲突,预防制度真空,铸造制度合力。     

从西方人权话语拓展看中国人权话语的国际化

西方人权话语拓展的主要方式是软渗透和硬介入。软渗透表现为通过西方人权"区域理念--区域规则--国际规则--国内规则"的规范扩散,推动非西方国家接受由西方主导建构起来的国际人权规范体系,形成对西方人权话语的法律确信,最终实现"西方人权国际化"和"国际人权国内化"。硬介入表现为通过政治、军事、经济、外交等方式强行推动非西方国家接受西方人权话语并将之纳入国内法律秩序,加速了西方人权国际化。西方人权话语拓展引起"它变"和"自变"效果。一方面,面对软渗透和硬介入,非西方国家或者被动接受,或者借助条约批准、保留等国际法手段予以选择性认同或变通,甚至提出竞争性替代话语加以对冲。另一方面,西方人权话语也在内外因素下不断自我调适,逐步提升可接受性。中国对外拓展人权话语,应充分利用"百年未有之大变局"带来的战略机遇期,借助政治、经济、文化等多种途径,加速国际人权话语格局的变革;尽快形成以发展主义权利观为核心的人权话语体系,并通过对话来增进中国人权话语的价值共识;坚持发挥规范性力量的作用,学会利用国际法律机制,着力提升在国际人权体系内将中国理念和话语转化为国际规则以及保障国际规则被遵守的制度能力。     

贸易与人权关系初探——兼论WTO与人权

2001年11月在卡塔尔首都多哈举行的WTO第四次部长级会议通过了《关于TRIPS协议和公共健康宣言》引起了在WTO范围内知识产权的保护和人权保护之间关系的讨论,进而扩展到WTO法与国际人权法之间的关系。贸易和人权二者之间虽然存在着一定的冲突,但是二者在发展历史和实践中的联系却是不可忽视的。在现有的WTO框架下,发达国家和发展中国家基于各自的利益,都在人权问题上向对方发难。人权迟早会被纳入WTO的考虑范围之内,关键是以何种方式将其纳入WTO的范围。《多哈TRIPS宣言》是一种比较实际的方式,即就具体问题所涉及的人权达成具有国际法拘束力的协议,采用逐个、渐进的方式将人权纳入到WTO范围之内。     

比例原则的适用范围与限度

比例原则是对限制公民权利的国家权力的限制,其适用需要满足一定的前提条件。比例原则保护的是一种相对权利,审查的是国家权力行使的合理性问题,不可克减的公民权利以及目的正当性不在其适用范围内。比例原则具有独特的内涵和价值功能,没有必要也不应当在民法、刑法等部门法中普遍适用,理应回归行政法这一固有领地。为适应国家任务的多样性,比例原则在关注侵益行政行为的同时,也应当向授益行政行为和互益行政行为的领域拓展,但“最小侵害”的严格标准和“法益均衡”的目标追求,决定了其主要用于规制常态意义下的行政权力行使,在紧急状态中的适用要受到一定限制。     

Accountability for Private Military and Security Contractors in the International Legal Regime

Abstract

The rapidly growing presence of private military and security contractors (PMSCs) in armed conflict and post-conflict situations in the last decade brought corresponding incidents of serious misconduct by PMSC personnel. The two most infamous events—one involving the firm formerly known as Blackwater and the other involving Titan and CACI—engendered scrutiny of available mechanisms for criminal and civil accountability of the individuals whose misconduct caused the harm. Along a parallel track, scholars and policymakers began examining the responsibility of states and international organizations for the harm that occurred. Both approaches have primarily focused on post-conduct accountability—of the individuals who caused the harm, of the state in which the harm occurred, or of the state or organization that hired the PMSC whose personnel caused the harm. Less attention, however, has been paid to the idea of pre-conduct accountability for PMSCs and their personnel. A broad understanding of “accountability for” PMSCs and their personnel encompasses not only responsibility for harm caused by conduct, but responsibility for hiring, hosting, and monitoring these entities, as well as responsibility to the victims of the harm. This article provides a comprehensive approach for analyzing the existing international legal regime, and whether and to what extent the legal regime provides “accountability for” PMSCs and their personnel. It does so by proposing a practical construct of three phases based on PMSC operations—Contracting, In-the-Field, and Post-Conduct—with which to assess the various bodies of international law.     

What Happens to Law in a Refugee Camp?

How do people living in a refugee camp engage with legal practices, discourses, and institutions? Critics argue that refugee camps leave people in “legal limbo” depriving them of the “right to have rights” despite the presence of international humanitarian actors and the entitlements enshrined in international law. For that reason, refugee camps have become a highly visible symbol of failed human rights campaigns. In contrast, I found in an ethnography of the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, West Africa, that although people living as refugees faced chronic insecurity and injustice, they engaged extensively with several different facets of the law. I illuminate three interrelated dimensions of their experiences: (1) their development as international legal subjects; (2) their alienation from domestic legal institutions; and (3) their agency within the legal field. The article contributes to the research agenda on law in humanitarian settings an empirically grounded account of the subjective dimensions of legal alienation and mobilization in a refugee camp. More broadly, it contributes to international human rights debates by theorizing a mixed outcome of international human rights campaigns: the emergence of wards of international law, people deeply embedded in the international legal system, but alienated from local law.     

论人权国际保护与国家主权

人权国际保护与国家主权的关系 ,是现代国际法上的一个基本理论问题。人权国际保护与国家主权并不是绝对对立的 ,而是互相统一、互相促进的。一方面 ,人权国际保护对国家主权提出了新的挑战 ;另一方面 ,国家主权又对人权国际保护产生制约。在承认不干涉内政原则的情况下 ,国际社会在特定情势下为保护人权可进行干涉。     

Traditional Local Justice,Women’s Rights,and the Rule of Law: A Pluralistic Framework

The paper focuses on the application of a particular conception of the rule of law to situations characterized by traditional local justice and legal pluralism. While in the twentieth century international rule‐of‐law programmes were directed almost exclusively at state legal system, they have recently begun to take into account traditional local justice, namely, those institutions which in many world regions represent the main form of effective justice. Starting with a review of the positive and negative aspects of traditional local justice from a rule‐of‐law perspective, the paper underlines the widespread lack of protection of human rights, particularly of women’s rights. Discussing vertical rule‐of‐law functions in contexts of legal pluralism the paper stresses the advantages of an approach to the promotion of the rule of law based on mutual recognition and influence between different legal authorities and sources. It is argued that this “interactive” approach appears best suited to the complex frameworks of relations that characterize present‐day systems of deep legal pluralism. Finally, the paper underlines the correspondence between this approach and a conception of the rule of law as an ideal framework of plural interactions characterized by the limits imposed on the law by the law itself, and it discusses its advantages from the perspective of human rights and women’s rights promotion.     

“本性应得”与“不可侵犯”——评马里旦的权利学说

马里旦的权利学说回归到阿奎那的自然法学说,以上帝规定人的本性、本质——人的功能正常运行——为基点,引申出人的自然义务和自然权利。其理解、使用的"权利"概念既有与古典自然法学权利观——正当自由——相近的"不可侵犯"之义,又有源自潘恩的"应得"之义,有时又有具体利益事项之义。对马里旦权利学说的辨析有助于深化对权利概念的认识。     

Litigating Corporate Human Rights Information

This article analyzes trends in litigation brought against corporate actors regarding human rights information. Such information includes, but is not limited to, statements on packaging claiming that products are “ethically sourced” and investor-facing disclosures representing that an issuer's operations are environmentally friendly. It proceeds by outlining the sources of human rights-related disclosures as they arise under both legal and voluntary regimes. The article then addresses the case law. Recent years have seen an increase in lawsuits involving human rights information, or lack thereof, imparted by companies. Consumer protection or consumer fraud cases are being filed, alleging that companies have either provided false and misleading information or omitted information about corporate human rights impacts and mitigation efforts. Investors are filing similar claims. The article examines the trend and considers the role of this litigation both in holding companies to their word and in providing corporate accountability for the underlying human rights abuses that false or misleading human rights information may mask. It ultimately argues that, although success at trial in such cases remains elusive, litigation is a useful and potentially growing tool for holding companies to their word regarding human rights claims. It contextualizes this litigation, arguing that other means by which companies can be held to their word should be strengthened, including public enforcement and—potentially—new disclosure and due diligence laws.     

论“和”文化语境下的国际法治建设

国际秩序建立在国际法律制度基础之上,新格局之下的国际政治经济秩序需要相应的良法善治。以西方宗教文化为精神内核的当代国际法,面对人类当下存在的公共问题,已经难以做出有效应对。构建人类命运共同体之理念正是充分吸取了中国传统“和”文化的有益成分,对现存国际法治基础理论给予了补充和创新,对人类未来国际法治建设给予指导,因为“和”文化完全不同于西方“利”文化,更有助于实现不同文化、文明的和解和共荣。     

社会保障的人权保护

国际人权条约将社会保障确认为人权的重要内容,使社会保障权表现为国家义务的形式,国家应努力创造条件使其向现实权利转化。从我国条约适用来看,已经生效的国际人权条约必须首先转化为国内法才能得到执行,表明了立法对于人权保护的重要性和基础性地位,而我国的社会保障立法滞后,难以满足现实需要。所以,应按照条约要求和国内实际情况,围绕社会保障权构建一个完备的权利保障法律体系,积极履行国际义务,加强社会保障的人权保护,促进社会保障权的实现。     

The Changing Face of Corporate Liability – New Hard Law and the Increasing Influence of Soft Law

The first frameworks defining standards of human rights protection specifically for business enterprises were non-binding “soft law” like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In recent times, a “hardening” of corporate human rights law has taken place. Several acts of “hard law” have been implemented at a national and EU level. This article provides an overview of the most important ones. The “hard law” provisions differ in their scope: some obligate companies to report on human rights, others stipulate concrete obligations to conduct human rights due diligence. Another way of tackling the issue of human rights compliance has been demonstrated by the prosecution of companies in the United States. While procedural guidelines abstractly stipulate an effective compliance system to be a mitigating factor, the US Department of Justice regularly defines concrete compliance obligations in deferred or non-prosecution agreements. This development could lead to comprehensive liability for negligence due to organisational and monitoring deficiencies. But who defines the standards? This article examines how the changing practice of human rights compliance may have “feedback effects” on hard law, particularly by changing the scale of negligence. Regarding the lack of effectiveness of some due diligence measures, especially in the “certification industry”, it is then asked how legislation may proactively exert influence by defining effective CSR instruments necessary to prevent civil and criminal liability. Using the example of German law, a proposal is made to implement an obligation of human rights due diligence in “hard law” and, simultaneously, set up an independent expert commission that drafts guidelines specifying the necessary measures for different kinds of companies.     

人权的内核——兼论“以人为本”的宪法涵义

宪法上基本权利的保障有其基础理论和核心内容,西方实证宪法和宪政理论都肯定“人的尊严”构成了人权的内核。人的尊严是人权宪法保障的哲学依据,是人权生长的原点,是对基本权利限制的限制。“国家尊重和保障人权”是一种规范性表述,而非描述性表述,其中蕴含着一定的价值判断,表明“以人为本”已经从实证法形式上升为国家理念,构成了我国宪政制度建构的根本,是借鉴世界其他国家宪政和人权理论与制度的坚固基础。     

国际人权条约的形式分析

国际人权条约是国际人权法最重要的渊源。本文从形式角度研究了国际人权条约 ,介绍了国际人权条约的名称 ,区分了国际人权条约的类别 ,总结了国际人权条约的形式特点 ,并分析了国际人权条约的结构。     

可持续发展与人权的时空耦合及动态演进——兼论中国消除贫困和其国际法意义

从寻求保护地球机会的“另外之路”到破解全球性问题的金钥匙,可持续发展逐渐登上国际舞台,并与人权在一定时空邂逅。其关乎人的自身发展问题,包括消除贫困以及平等、人权等诸多领域,而人权是加快取得更公平和可持续发展进展的明智方式。两者相互耦合、相互促进,可持续发展因人权因素的渗透而使其内涵不断扩大,人权的内涵也因可持续发展理念的介入而更加丰富,两者在不断深化内涵、增添时代内容中悄然演进。贫困是不可持续的根源,阻碍了可持续发展;贫困状态严重妨碍人权的充分实现和享有。中国消除贫困的国际法意义深远,不仅为国际扶贫脱困提供中国样本,而且在维护世界稳定、和平安全、人权保障、消除恐怖主义等方面均有重要影响。     

论国际人权法对国际刑法的影响

冷战结束后,国际人权法获得了较为广阔的生长空间,国际刑法也进入复兴和快速发展的阶段。国际人权法对国际刑法各个领域的影响都十分明显,从基本原则到具体规则,从实体法到程序法,从刑罚制度设计到刑罚的执行,并努力在保护被害人与保障被告人权利两者之间保持微妙的平衡。然而,透过国际人权法推动国际刑法发展的帷幔,不难发现其背后＂人权＂和＂主权＂之间的紧张博弈：为保护人权,国际人权法引领着国际刑法试图突破国家领土的藩篱进而穿透国家主权的坚硬＂铠甲＂;国家则奋力祭起＂主权＂大旗并诉诸＂司法独立＂的坚固盾牌,抵御某些外部政治实体利用国际刑事司法机构干涉其内政、侵蚀其＂司法独立＂,以最大限度地维护国家利益。