New judicial interpretation of PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law issued

The Supreme People's Court of China has announced the firstjudicial interpretation of the PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law(‘the Law’), to clarify the ambiguities in the applicationof the Law. Issues covered include passing off by the use oftrade names, packaging or trade dress of well-known products,or the use of the business name or personal name of anotherenterprise or individual, false or exaggerated advertising,and unauthorized use of trade secrets.     

Management and safety of a medical mission: occupational hazards of volunteering

Medical aid missions involve travel to conflict or danger zones, posing safety risks in addition to the usual occupational risks arising from daily medical work. The note reports on a volunteer mission, using personal reports, anecdotal experiences, and the formal annual report to undertake an assessment similar to worksite assessments for hazards and control measures. Hazards were found to be prevalent, including physical noise and heat, infectious exposure from patients and local vectors, poor water sanitation, and psychosocial stress from unfamiliar environments and large patient numbers with limited means. Implementable preventative measures include increasing awareness with appropriate protective equipment usage and safety guidelines. Mission planning and management should also involve occupational health input.     

Collective Litigation and the Constitutional Challenges to Decriminalizing Homosexuality in Singapore

This article examines collective legal mobilization through the courts, or collective litigation, in a non‐liberal regime. It analyses the emergence and development of collective litigation to challenge the constitutionality of section 377A of the Penal Code, the law that criminalizes same‐sex sexual conduct in Singapore. The analysis focuses on the relational dynamics of collective litigation and legal subjectivities of the social actors involved, highlighting how social positions and strategic interests shaped their interactions and decisions on litigation. While gay rights activists emphasized their movement's collective interests when choosing the appropriate case and lawyers, a movement outsider pursued individual interests on behalf of a client. Due to their divergent social positions and strategic interests, the two teams competed with each other as they initiated two separate constitutional challenges. Tension between the teams led to conflict with constituents of the gay rights movement and influenced their relational dynamics with other parties.     

Corruption and Policy Implementation in the Philippines: A Comparative Analysis of the Teacher Training and Textbook Delivery Programmes

Corruption is a perennial obstacle to the Philippines’ pursuit of development. The Department of Education (DepEd) is considered to be one of the most corrupt agencies in the Philippines. However, there are two DepEd programmes with different levels of effectiveness in controlling corruption. The Textbook Delivery Programme has been ineffective while the Programme on Basic Education has been successful. The article explains the different levels of implementing these programmes by using local perspectives via the ‘narratives of implementation actors’. Apart from providing insights on the challenges facing the evolving educational bureaucracy in the Philippines, this article also demonstrates the utility of network actor perspectives in appreciating the many concerns that determine and impede implementation performance and discusses the causes and impact of corruption and policy implementation on two public educational programmes.     

Becoming a “Good Nixon Doctrine Country”: Political Relations between the United States and Singapore during the Nixon Presidency

The Nixon Doctrine, which devolved US troops from direct involvement in Asian conflicts but gave priority to military sales and economic assistance, was considered by some commentators to be an inefficacious foreign policy approach that did little to serve US interests in Asia during the Cold War. Using Singapore as a case study, this article demonstrates that Richard Nixon's foreign policy approach improved US‐Singapore relations significantly from 1970 onwards. After a period of flirtation with the Soviet Union during 1968–72, Singapore came to be labelled a “good Nixon Doctrine country” by the US government in 1973. Through the sale of US military equipment and economic assistance, Singapore and the US cultivated bilateral ties that endured after the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in 1973 and the fall of Saigon two years later.