Protect the unprotected: the escaping North Korean issue and China’s dual dilemma of theoretical enlightenment and operational trial

Escalating tensions in the Peninsula may force voluminous North Koreans to leave the country, although relevant information is limited. China has refused to grant North Korean escapees the refugee status, because the main reason of their departure, economic hardship, is not prescribed in conventional refugee definition. The Bangkok Principles provide principal guidance to Asia’s refugee issues, whereto its non-legally binding framework helps facilitate the fledgling regional efforts and still-developing states’ wills. Yet, China’s insistence in distinguishing economic hardship from political causes reifies its overt cautions to the rapidly evolving refugee causes, and an outright rejection to the indiscriminate humanitarian nature of refugee protection. Another reason is China’s ‘Asian Values’ approach to human right, seeing various aspects of human right as separable. To grant refugees only partial rights would appear theoretically unsound, and blatantly contradicting its integral human-right essence. Realistically, China has only limited refugee reception experiences. Its relevant domestic mechanism is under-developed, whereby positive public opinions cannot be effectively remoulded. China also worries about the unwanted international attentions and entailed geopolitical implications, which imply denunciation of Pyongyang’s governance performance by formally identifying these escapees, refugees. Current dramatic changes in inter-Korean relations urge China to take swift, expedient, and substantive actions.     

我国司法实践对国际商事仲裁“公共政策”的理解与适用

《纽约公约》虽明确将违反公共政策作为执行国法院拒绝承认和执行国际商事仲裁裁决的理由之一,但并未对公共政策的含义、范围以及具体的内容作出统一解释,致使其在国际商事仲裁中的适用具有极大的不确定性。本文结合国际立法及其在我国司法实践中的应用,对公共政策的内涵进行必要的阐述。     

洗钱罪构成要件与立法完善

我国现行《刑法》及《修正案》关于洗钱罪犯罪构成的设计还存在较多缺陷,与我国签署的相关国际公约还不协调,尤其未能把贪污贿赂犯罪纳入洗钱罪的上游犯罪,不利于惩治腐败犯罪,也不利于反洗钱的国际合作。因而,应尽快制定《反洗钱法》,惩治洗钱罪的上游犯罪,完善相关的刑事措施与制度,加强反洗钱国际合作。