http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/uclalaw_pblj/rss Recent eScholarship items from UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal Tue, 23 Jun 2026 01:01:38 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2mz549cr <p>Over the last two decades, China has undergone an extraordinary&nbsp;transformation in environmental law and governance that remains insufficiently&nbsp;understood in the outside world. In April 2024, the UCLA Pacific&nbsp;Basin Law Journal and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the<br>Environment at UCLA School of Law held a symposium on <em>China &amp; the&nbsp;Environment – Taking Stock of Domestic and Global Developments in&nbsp;Law &amp; Governance</em>. Leading Chinese environmental law scholars, Chinese&nbsp;civil society actors, and international scholars gathered to shed light&nbsp;on cutting edge developments.2 As part of the symposium, UCLA Law&nbsp;also organized a public talk on <em>Chinese Environmental Civil Society</em> to&nbsp;explore the continuing role of environmental non-governmental organizations&nbsp;(NGOs) in Chinese environmental protection.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2mz549cr Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Wang, Alex L. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8w89x321 <p>This Article provides the first detailed description of gambling in&nbsp;American Samoa. In addition to being one of just five inhabited U.S. territories,&nbsp;American Samoa is one of only four U.S. jurisdictions that bans&nbsp;all forms of commercial gambling. As such, it offers a rare opportunity&nbsp;to examine gambling in an anti-gambling society. The fact that American&nbsp;Samoa is located thousands of miles from the U.S. mainland; relies&nbsp;heavily on customs that are quite foreign to most Americans; lacks any&nbsp;sort of system for reporting judicial decisions despite having courts that&nbsp;are precedent-based; and permits charitable gaming (even though it has&nbsp;become a cover for large-scale gambling operators) makes studying the&nbsp;territory even more valuable.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8w89x321 Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Jarvis, Robert M. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8f27b0sg <p>As many people are currently discussing an important reform of&nbsp;international tax rules1 and the tensions surrounding Taiwan, it is worthwhile&nbsp;to consider the tax aspect of Taiwan’s relationship with the world.&nbsp;Legal rules govern both Taiwan’s outbound investment and inbound&nbsp;investment in Taiwan. Even the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.,&nbsp;<em>zhonghua renmin gonghe guo</em>, or 中華人民共和國) receives Taiwan’s outbound&nbsp;investment, and Taiwan receives inbound investment from the&nbsp;P.R.C. At a time when tit-for-tat politics catches almost all the attention,&nbsp;a less well-known aspect of international law demonstrates both a<br>cause for optimism and a problem. Taiwan has its own legal rules, and&nbsp;Taiwan has bilateral treaties or agreements with its friends. However,&nbsp;when there are multilateral efforts to face the challenges of an important&nbsp;issue, Taiwan has often been left out. This article discusses Taiwan’s&nbsp;engagement with the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8f27b0sg Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Chung, Chi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bt7c18b <p>This article starts by overviewing China’s implementation and&nbsp;enforcement framework for the Montreal Protocol. It then examines the&nbsp;incident of the unexpected CFC-11 emissions, including the discovery&nbsp;of illegal production, the ensuing debate at the Montreal Protocol, and&nbsp;China’s domestic and international responses. The next section traces&nbsp;subsequent reforms at the Montreal Protocol and China’s involvement&nbsp;in emerging unexpected emissions. The concluding section evaluates&nbsp;China’s efforts in enforcement capacity building and ongoing challenges&nbsp;it faces.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bt7c18b Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Yang, Shiming https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5bd8166q <p>This article endeavors to make three distinct contributions.&nbsp;<em>First</em>, this article focuses specifically on the perspective of Taiwan. The meanings of abortion vary in deferring cultural systems, and the norms vary significantly between countries. Nonetheless, in Taiwan, most scholars have a tendency to scrutinize and denounce domestic law through the lens of Western law, overlooking the disparities in the social and cultural foundations on which these two ledgal systems are built. To prevent replication of the previous research pattern of viewing Taiwan through a Western perspective, the legal system must be reexamined by taking into account Taiwan's social and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, this article&nbsp;chooses to focus on the locality of Taiwan. Second, this article wishes to&nbsp;present Taiwan’s experience and ongoing approach to addressing abortion&nbsp;issues as a model for other nations in the international community.&nbsp;Due to statehood disputes,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5bd8166q Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Suzy Szu-Yu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58v4j6nk <p>While Chinese environmental NGOs have made progress in internationalization,&nbsp;they also face various challenges. China’s increasingly&nbsp;important role in global production, consumption, trade, and investment&nbsp;underscores the importance of its NGOs in global environmental governance&nbsp;and sustainable development. Moreover, there is a growing&nbsp;demand from both domestic and international stakeholders for Chinese&nbsp;NGOs to engage in global dialogue and foster collaborative efforts.&nbsp;</p> <p>As a China-based non-governmental and non-profit environmental organization focusing on environmental and developmental issues, the Global Environmental Institute (GEI) has prioritized promoting harmonious development of investment, trade, and environment since its inception. Since 2007, GEI has conducted research, implemented demonstration projects, advocated for the Chinese government to formulate policies on overseas investment, enhanced environmental governance capacity... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58v4j6nk Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Ren, Peng https://escholarship.org/uc/item/54r2x7x9 <p>China’s coal sector is the largest contributor to the country’s greenhouse&nbsp;gas emissions and a major cause of air pollution, which claims&nbsp;over 1 million lives annually.&nbsp; Long-term climate commitments include a target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, which entails between a&nbsp;60–90 percent reduction in coal use by mid-century. Of the many challenges&nbsp;associated with this transition, addressing the dislocation of coal&nbsp;and fossil fuel workers is perhaps the most challenging. While there are&nbsp;recognized efforts to achieve a “just transition” that works for fossil communities&nbsp;and workers, practices to date in China do not fully prioritize&nbsp;these groups.</p> <p><br>The closest analogue to what will need to be achieved is the supplyside&nbsp;restructuring of mostly state-owned coal and other heavy industries&nbsp;concentrated in 2016–2018 and continuing to this day. The coal sector&nbsp;has shed over 2 million jobs since its recent peak... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/54r2x7x9 Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Zou, Quan Liu, Yumeng Davidson, Michael R. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4z61j5cf <p>Although once seen as irrelevant to environmental protection,&nbsp;financial regulation has become a critical component of global climate&nbsp;change responses, as recognized by the Paris Agreement. In addition,&nbsp;climate change and related environmental risks, such as threats to&nbsp;biodiversity and natural resources, are now recognized as potentially&nbsp;financially material to companies, investors, and entire economies, as well&nbsp;as to sustainable development. For these reasons, China has joined the&nbsp;many other governments and international organizations worldwide who&nbsp;are actively engaged in promoting regulatory reforms and voluntary initiatives&nbsp;to advance a green finance transition.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4z61j5cf Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Ho, Virginia Harper https://escholarship.org/uc/item/45v486wk <p>This article analyzes the High Court of American Samoa’s 1980<br>ruling in <em>Craddick v. Territorial Registrar</em> and compares the decision’s<br>reasoning with preceding cases that had also evaluated the constitutionality<br>of racial restrictions under the equal protection guarantees of the<br>Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment. The article then compares<br>the legal analysis used by the High Court in <em>Craddick</em> with the legal<br>analysis used by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in <em>Wabol v. Villacrusis</em>,<br>a case that was based on similar facts and had a similar outcome to<br><em>Craddick</em>, but which relied on a different and completely incompatible<br>analysis of the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees. Finally, this<br>article compares the legal analysis in <em>Craddick</em> with the Supreme Court’s<br>recent decision in <em>Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard</em> and concludes<br>that if a challenge to Craddick were to make... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/45v486wk Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Harootunian, Dante C.H. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3hp7x4g2 <p>This article outlines the three stages of the development of China’s&nbsp;environmental law. It emphasizes the current stage, which is&nbsp;characterized by the holistic perspective rooted in traditional Chinese&nbsp;philosophy and integrated with the theory of sustainable development.&nbsp;It examines the evolution of China’s environmental legislation, administration,&nbsp;and judiciary within this framework. This article argues that&nbsp;China’s environmental legislation has transitioned from fragmentation&nbsp;to systematization; administrative enforcement departments have optimized&nbsp;functions through institutional and mechanism reforms; and the&nbsp;specialization of the environmental judiciary and the application of&nbsp;environmental restorative justice principles in the adjudication of environmental&nbsp;cases have effectively improved both the efficiency and quality&nbsp;of case judgments.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3hp7x4g2 Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Tianbao, Qin Yang, Liang https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2jw1918j Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2jw1918j Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2hg388cp <p>This short paper analyzes China’s new green energy cooperation.&nbsp;Its main aim is to describe the scope, characteristics, and key themes of&nbsp;energy cooperation programming. To do so, I draw upon a systematic&nbsp;review of China’s energy cooperation activities in Global South countries&nbsp;(building upon work in Harlan and Lu, 2022) and participant observation&nbsp;in three cooperation programs – two in 2023, and one in 2018. The&nbsp;findings reveal a diverse set of motivations of Chinese actors and organizations&nbsp;that are delivering cooperation activities, but also a shared focus&nbsp;on promoting China’s technocratic expertise and innovation in green&nbsp;energy. I then argue that, rather than view China’s energy cooperation&nbsp;efforts as “greenwashing,” a more effective response is to see them as&nbsp;openings for engagement and collaboration in advancing Global South&nbsp;sustainability transitions.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2hg388cp Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Harlan, Tyler https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gs8p339 <p>The article critically examines the role of environmental law in China’s&nbsp;state-capitalist system from a structural Marxist perspective. The&nbsp;author argues that the Chinese environmental regulatory regime, often&nbsp;perceived as arbitrary and chaotic, is not a mere byproduct of a developing&nbsp;legal system but a deliberate strategy to legitimize state authority and&nbsp;control. Through case studies on integrated water resources management&nbsp;and the prevention of husbandry waste pollution, the article illustrates how&nbsp;environmental laws serve as both Repressive State Apparatuses (RSA) and&nbsp;Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA), enforcing social control and shaping&nbsp;public consciousness. The state’s top-down enforcement methods,&nbsp;reliance on technocratic solutions, and manipulation of legal and moral&nbsp;ideologies are shown to maintain and obscure the relations of production,&nbsp;reinforcing the state capitalist model of accumulation. The article&nbsp;also... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gs8p339 Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Mao, KuoRay https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16s5577n Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16s5577n Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sr5f1pc <p>As China continues to enhance its ecological civilization, emerging&nbsp;ecosystem laws have arisen. This paper aims to explore the characteristics&nbsp;of China’s emerging ecosystem laws as well as their practical application&nbsp;and challenges. The research focuses on two main backgrounds of these&nbsp;laws - the ecological civilization ideology that led to their emergence,&nbsp;and their legislative phases. This study primarily revolves around the&nbsp;legal characteristics and implementation challenges of the emerging ecosystem&nbsp;laws, recognizing the considerable innovation in legislating for&nbsp;large-scale ecosystems in China. The main challenge lies in the need for&nbsp;novel administrative and judicial coordination mechanisms across administrative&nbsp;regions and the detailed implementation of specific rules and&nbsp;regulations. By comparing these ecosystem laws to the legislation and&nbsp;governance of five representative large river basins in the United States,&nbsp;the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sr5f1pc Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Zhao, Huiyu Xu, Yizhen https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qj0k5vn <p>Despite significant efforts towards decarbonization, China’s progress&nbsp;in climate legislation has been relatively slow. This paper explores&nbsp;China’s current climate laws and the institutional approach behind the&nbsp;legislating efforts, identifying a central challenge: the lack of coordination&nbsp;among laws enacted at different times with varied focuses. It argues&nbsp;that a dedicated climate law could enhance accountability for climate&nbsp;goals and address the gaps in climate litigation. The paper also reviews&nbsp;China’s lawmaking institutions, discussing the roles and interactions of&nbsp;key players in shaping climate governance. Additionally, it compares legislative&nbsp;models from other countries, proposing components that could&nbsp;be adapted for China. The paper concludes with recommendations for a&nbsp;comprehensive climate legislation framework in China.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qj0k5vn Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Dai, Anni Dai, Fan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/83w747g0 This Article is the third in a series that explores the role that unreliable American pseudo-psychology plays in the New Zealand Family Court's inadequate responses to family violence. In "Endangered by Junk Science," I argued that the Court relies upon "expert" opinion evidence based on behavioral-science principles, forensic methods, and fallacious statistical reasoning that lack both foundational and as-applied validity to determine children's best interests and that the result has been entrenched pseudo-scientific mythologies that endanger women and children, immunize violent fathers, and silence children's voices. In "Sub Silentio Alienation," I argued that these failures are the result of implicit associations and cognitive barriers, gender bias, and the close relationship between Family Court Judges and court psychologists, which preculde internal reform. In this Artitcle, I advance a third cause of the failure of the New Zealand Family Court to respond adequately and appropriately... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/83w747g0 Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Leonetti, Carrie https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7rm3670c Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7rm3670c Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5kv46084 <p>Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh were all established on a sense of wanting to be a majority in a nation where they were once “othered,” be it by the British, Hindu majority, or Urdu-speaking majority. As a result, religious independence and mother-tongue/linguistic independence are highly valued in these countries, and are the context by which the morality of trademarks within the borders of these countries are assessed. Notions of free speech traditions and political ideologies that also color traditions are discussed, as they also run abreast trademark law. Although these three countries once emerged from one land, they carry differences as distinct and rich as the cultural and religious historical tensions that define them. Each sought to create a space where their cultural and religious identities were represented fairly. As thus, it is no surprise that religion is such an important consideration that it was codified into each country’s trademark law.</p><p>This paper aims... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5kv46084 Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Jafri, Zehra https://escholarship.org/uc/item/440633m7 After the UK published the UK Stewardship Code in 2010, several other jurisdictions followed suit and published their own versions of stewardship codes. The focus on institutional investor stewardship has become a global trend in recent years. In 2016, Taiwan joined the trend by launching the “Stewardship Principles for Institutional Investors” (Taiwan Stewardship Code). As the Taiwan Stewardship Code has been based on the UK Stewardship, this Article first conducts a comparative analysis between the Taiwan and UK Stewardship Codes. To shed more light on institutional investor stewardship in Taiwan, this Article reviews the 2020 stewardship reports of all 153 signatories of the Taiwan Stewardship Code, which were released exactly five years after the launch of the Taiwan Stewardship Code . Examining the signatories’ stewardship activities in several aspects, this Article found that the signatories’ stewardship is far from satisfying. Not only does the level of stewardship fall... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/440633m7 Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Chang, Eric Chin-Ru https://escholarship.org/uc/item/11h712s7 This Article traces changes in the prison system in communist China and examines the relationship between the legal functions of prisons and the legitimation strategies of the state in different economic contexts. This Article finds that economic schemes and legitimation strategies are the two pivotal factors driving the prison system and shaping penal practices. In the early planned economy period, the Chinese government built its legitimacy on the revolutionary ideology to create a communist country, so the legal functions of the Chinese prison system focused on remodeling of prisoners through collective forced labor. Later, in the time of economic reform, legitimacy of the regime stemmed from its economic performance, so the legal function of the Chinese prison system shifted towards profit maximization, focusing all of its efforts on production. As the economic reform developed further, the Chinese government based its legitimacy on legal rules to accomplish its various goals,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/11h712s7 Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Lin, Mao-hong https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rt184x8 Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rt184x8 Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vt6x07p The author of this essay, a practicing lawyer and clinical law instructor, encountered remote learning in Myanmar (AKA Burma) while serving as international leader on a university clinical teaching initiative, under the auspices of the European Union and British Council. A military coup d’état last year abruptly disrupted that country’s transition to democratic governance, with arrests, detentions, killings and curtailing of fundamental rights. The coup has prompted two questions for both short- and long-term consideration for justice educators: First, what are the options—and then obligations—for those who teach and otherwise engage with colleagues abroad, to support their institutional or other political struggles? Second, to what extent should collaboration in initiating or strengthening legal educational innovation—grounded in principles of access to justice and rule of law—continue in the context of a stratocracy or similar authoritarian state? https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vt6x07p Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Rosenbaum, Stephen A. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vh3k4t4 China is in the late stages of developing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which is essentially a digital, sovereign currency lacking convertibility to physical cash. This initiative is a significant innovation in currency systems, not yet implemented by any other country. China will face unique challenges in its CBDC project. As a first mover in this space, Chinese leaders are no longer able to study the successes and failures of other nations who have previously attempted to launch a CBDC. Yet, Beijing leadership may draw on experiences from its own prior reforms and governance challenges. This article will highlight three governance principles, developed through the reforms of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, that will give Beijing a unique advantage as a first mover in the CBDC race: (1) dual-track transition systems, (2) regional experimentation, and (3) rapid construction of regulatory systems. This paper hopes to show how China is taking a distinct approach... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vh3k4t4 Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 O'Brien, Robert https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63j308wv In 2018, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un expressed his desire to write a new history of Korean reunification. South Korean President Moon Jae-in reciprocated Kim’s desire in August 2019 when Moon set the ambitious deadline of the year 2045 for a peaceful reunification of the Koreas. The rhetoric of the two Koreas placed a renewed spotlight on the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. While contemporary literature on Korean reunification primarily focuses on the differences between the two Koreas, little attention has been paid to how a unified Korean identity can play a crucial rule in sustaining the reunification effort. This article seeks to bridge that gap by arguing that a unified Korea should be understood as a reimagined community of two distinct nations joined by a shared identity. To support this argument, this article looks first to the theoretical framework of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism and applies the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63j308wv Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Kim, Aileen S. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37t5b05t There is a rich literature that utilizes state, province, and other subregional data to evaluate the causes and effects of civil litigation. Yet, issues of spatial dependence are often neglected in this context. In the current study, we argue that civil litigation may be subject to spatial spillovers, in which litigation in one region influences litigation in nearby regions. We then test for spatial effects using six years (2011–2016) of province-level data from China. Our results provide strong evidence of jurisdiction-level spillovers, even after controlling for spatially correlated regressors and shocks. Additionally, we find that ignoring spatial processes can lead to a systematic underestimation of the influence of civil litigation determinants. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37t5b05t Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Bujakowski, Douglas https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18q4n1g3 This article considers the problematic place of individual American Sāmoans who have been denied full membership within the American political community, first due to the colonialist arcane notion of being unfit for full membership in the American community on racial and cultural grounds embodied in the Supreme Court’s Insular Cases, and second, because these same cases have been repurposed, ostensibly to protect Indigenous culture. To that end, this article reviews the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Fitisemanu et al.v. United States, where a split panel reversed the U.S. District Court recognition of birthright citizenship to those born within American Sāmoa. The Appeals Court’s decision determined that American Sāmoa was not within the scope of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution through a controversial repackaging of the so-called Insular Cases, which have been criticized as being emblematic of racialist and colonialist jurisprudence... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18q4n1g3 Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Charlton, Guy C. Fadgen, Tim https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dn3r8jd Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dn3r8jd Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9bf3966z <p>This Article provides a comparative critique of hate speech jurisprudence in New Zealand and the United States by building on insights from Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholars. &nbsp;My main argument is that neither of these liberal democracies protect the right to freedom of expression/speech as they claim, but in fact dishonestly protect a right to “freedom of expression of racism” or “freedom of racist speech.” &nbsp;They do this by telling lies that inflate the value of free expression/speech and diminish and dismiss the harms that hate speech inflicts on marginalized groups. &nbsp;To move towards honest hate speech laws in both jurisdictions, I propose a communications strategy that seeks to reframe hate speech from a free speech issue to a public health issue. &nbsp;This is in order to push for reforms that will enable the courts to better protect people of color from the physical, mental, psychological or spiritual harms of racist hate speech.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9bf3966z Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Asafo, Dylan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kj4v6s2 <p>Since 2005, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), nervous over the uncertain future of the Compact of Free Association and seeking to improve its fiscal self-sufficiency, has wasted time and resources on a pie-in-the-sky tax reform proposal with too many moving parts and too many stakeholders to satisfy.&nbsp; A more practical path to tax reform must be found—and as the authors argue, Hawaii’s unique tax system should be used as a map forward.</p><p>The FSM and Hawaii each have broad-based consumption taxes—the gross revenues tax and the general excise tax, respectively.&nbsp; Although these two taxes appear similar at first glance, Hawaii’s tax has developed sophisticated characteristics over the past eighty-five years. &nbsp;Instead of attempting yet again to discard its gross revenues tax, the FSM should transform it.&nbsp; Replicating and accelerating Hawaii’s eighty-five-year tax evolution could offer the FSM a much more practicable—and less politically daunting—shortcut... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kj4v6s2 Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 White, Jonathan W. Michaels, Joshua J. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6jq2f3cv Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6jq2f3cv Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56b7g9qh Within the last few decades, assistive reproductive technology (ART) has had high levels of usage, particularly artificial insemination (AI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). &nbsp;The advent of IVF opened a host of additional possibilities, including the recruitment of women who have no genetic link to the child to serve as surrogates.&nbsp; Over the past several decades, the average age of a woman who has her first child in Japan has climbed to 30.7.<a>[1]</a> Couples have increasingly found themselves unable to bear children and have turned to IVF.&nbsp; Yet Japan has no statutory provisions regulating surrogacy, and the Japanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology flatly bans the practice.&nbsp; As a result, many infertile couples have gone abroad to arrange surrogacy.&nbsp; But in 2007 the Supreme Court ruled that the legal mother in a surrogacy birth is the surrogate, even if a foreign court had ruled otherwise. &nbsp;This case is translated in full in this Article, along... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56b7g9qh Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Spaulding, Sachi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3rx7p6tr Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3rx7p6tr Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sm0p9m6 <p>This Article explores the connection between the carceral strategy utilized by the Chinese government and the social structure in the Mao era.&nbsp; From Mao’s view, thought reform and profit-seeking were the two primary goals of the Chinese socialist prison.&nbsp; Yet, by placing the system of labor camps and post-release management into a broader context, this Article demonstrates that the system was designed to make inmates depend on the socialist settings through the measures of party-state apparatus, prisoner cards and dossiers, classification of prisoners, hard labor, and thought remolding.&nbsp; Those measures had their counterparts in the general social structure in communist China, like work unit, household registration and political dossier.&nbsp; In addition, the unique feature of punishment-profit nexus made the system of labor camps and post-release management crucial for the purposes of economic development and political control in Mao’s time. &nbsp;In conclusion,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sm0p9m6 Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Lin, Mao-Hong https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0114b0g1 <p>The Korean War never actually ended. &nbsp;Although largescale hostilities have been suspended for decades under an armistice agreement, a peace agreement was never signed, and there remains a tense posture in which the United States, North Korea, and South Korea continue to prepare themselves for resumed hostilities at any time.&nbsp; The Trump administration indicated a willingness to enter into a peace agreement with North Korea to formally end the war and but did not follow through, and other prior American presidents had also failed to secure normalized relations with North Korea.&nbsp; South Korean President Moon Jae-in continues to advocate fiercely for a formal peace agreement between the warring parties, and given the recent change of political leadership within the United States, the issue is sure to arise again.</p><p>But if a U.S. president were to one day succeed in concluding a binding international peace agreement to formally end the Korean War, what should be... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0114b0g1 Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Beavers, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9jb9m924 Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9jb9m924 Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7v21z5jk Macau’s competitive foreign investment environment places it at the crossroads of global conceptions and articulations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). With tremendous financial resources at its disposal, including revenues six times those of Las Vegas, the Macau Government has a rare opportunity to position itself as a global leader in CSR practice. Nonetheless, systemic challenges such as low levels of public education and political development, the influence of mafia gangs, and high levels of human trafficking, problem gambling, and drug use persist. Although Macau’s situs as a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China ensures that CSR here will take its own form, these issues could be better addressed with open acknowledgement of the problems and improved channeling of local resources. Utilizing Matten and Moon’s methodology, this Article provides an overview of Macau’s CSR repertoires at this important point in local history: on the eve of the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7v21z5jk Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Buhi, Jason https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5xh829ms <p>Protection of foreign investment has long been an issue facing China.  The newly adopted Foreign Investment Law (FIL) and Implementation Regulations not only unify the foreign investment regulations but also reformulate the regulatory regime that governs foreign investment in the country.  In response to the mounting criticism of the practices in China that damage the interests of foreign investors, including, among others, forced technology transfer and commercial theft, the FIL is purposed to build a better environment so that foreign investment will be more effectively protected.</p><p>The FIL changes the main themes of China’s regulation of foreign investment and puts new market access rules and measures in place on the foreign investment horizon.  The FIL Implementation Regulations intend to fill the gaps left in the FIL.  Still, many questions remain unanswered.  Both the broadness and vagueness of the FIL require further clarification and specific measures in different... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5xh829ms Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Zhang, Mo https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4n79q1rp Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4n79q1rp Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3wr4c80p This Article critically examines the criminalization of religious fraudulent sex as sexual assault (i.e., rape and indecent acts) in Thailand and makes descriptive and normative contributions to the fields of comparative criminal law and constitutional law. With respect to criminal law, we find that Thai courts utilize a creative doctrinal maneuver (i.e., a victim’s naivety is a form of ‘inability to resist’) to convict alleged fraudsters with statutory provisions that do not readily criminalize fraudulent sex. We argue that while the doctrinal maneuver does desirably extend the otherwise limited scope of Thai sexual offense provisions, the emphasis on the cognitive deficiencies of the defrauded victim reflects a paternalistic victim-blaming that is problematic. With respect to constitutional law, we find that Thai courts are both comfortable in directly adjudicating religious claims, and intrinsically skeptical of any supernatural or religious claims involving sex as part of... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3wr4c80p Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Jianlin Triratpan, Phapit https://escholarship.org/uc/item/34v3715n <p>The first target of today’s global commercial and military espionage, trade secrets, are the only form of intellectual property protection to be based on the necessity of nondisclosure and secrecy rather than on the paradigm of publicity and exploitability, with the obvious consequence that where confidentiality ends, no trade secret factually exists anymore.  As such, current judicial remedies to trade secret thefts simply miss the point, treating trade secrets as rights which can be restored, rather than as assets that once stolen, are lost forever.  Moreover, trade secrets often represent the “backbone” of a country’s development: an invaluable strategic advantage for entire industrial systems, innovation environments, and national economies.  Whereas a trade secret theft occurring within domestic borders transfers exploitability rather than causing damage to the economic ecosystem of the country concerned, international trade secret thefts may jeopardize states’ economy... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/34v3715n Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Vecellio Segate, Riccardo https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30x226bn <p>If Person A delivers drugs to Person B at the latter’s request, Person A is liable for drug trafficking—a serious offense in many jurisdictions.  However, the liability of Person B for drug trafficking is unclear as much may depend on Person B’s intention with the drugs.  The Singaporean Courts recently had to grapple with this issue in <em>Liew Zheng Yang v. Public Prosecutor</em> and <em>Ali bin Mohamad Bahashwan v. Public Prosecutor</em> and other appeals.  Prior to these two cases, the position in Singapore was clear—Person B should be liable for drug trafficking as an accessory to Person A, in line with Singapore’s strong stance against drug offenses.  However, since these cases, the Singaporean Courts have taken a contrary position and held that Person B may not be liable if the drugs were for his/her own consumption.</p><p>This Article examines the law with respect to this drug conspiracy offense in Singapore, looking at its history, the primary legislation and similar... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30x226bn Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Yang, Kenny https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rk6v01d Recent experiences of constitutional review in the common law world have received increasing attention in comparative constitutional law scholarship.  Looking beyond the common law jurisdictions, this Article investigates the influence of variations on unconstitutionality management and changing constitutional politics on the functional mutation of remedial grace periods.  Through a case study of Taiwan in light of the comparison of the civilian-continental vs. common law models of constitutional review, it argues that legal tradition and the court’s role vis-à-vis the political branch in the dynamics of constitutional politics jointly contribute to the multifunctional role of remedial grace periods in unconstitutionality management.  As part of unconstitutionality management across constitutional jurisdictions, the granting of remedial grace periods is not simply the manifestation of judicial strategy.  The argument unfolds in three main Parts.  Part I first compares the use... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rk6v01d Fri, 17 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Kuo, Ming-Sung https://escholarship.org/uc/item/71w4j9xq This article focuses on two of the earliest Chinese law students in the United States who deployed their legal knowledge and advocacy skills to fight against the Chinese Exclusion Act and its related laws in the early 1900s.  Ho Yow, the fourth Chinese national to ever attend law school in the United States, performed this courageous task as Chinese consul to the United States.  His fellow countryman Yeung Fong joined in this battle by conducting a full-fledged systematic study of the racist laws, becoming the first Chinese national who wrote a master’s thesis on this controversial topic. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/71w4j9xq Fri, 17 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Li https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5s091670 <p>Under China’s current Marriage Law amended and enacted in 2001, its post–divorce financial relief system comprises three disparate component parts.  The principal part and the one analogous to the American concept of “alimony” or “spousal support” is the “post–divorce financial assistance system,” as authorized under Article 42.  The other two parts, “economic compensation at divorce” and “divorce damage claims system,” as authorized under Article 40 and Article 46, respectively, complement the principal part.  After a brief historical overview of China’s alimony legislations, this Article offers a doctrinal analysis of the two more straightforward components as embodied by Article 40 and Article 46.  Then it delves into an in-depth textual criticism of Article 42, and its concomitant 1984 SPC’s Judicial Opinions and Article 27 of the 2001 SPC’s Judicial Interpretations, the three constituents of the entire corpus of China’s “alimony laws.”  Through the lenses of California’s... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5s091670 Fri, 17 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Lee, Jason J. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21d9v5k7 Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21d9v5k7 Fri, 17 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/08h3q4hp Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/08h3q4hp Fri, 17 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tp976dh Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tp976dh Fri, 1 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5df2t197 The rights discourse has become a common and powerful currency in the public sphere. Public interest lawyers, who reason in law and facilitate the movements of legal rights, are the currency exchanger that converts power and political momentum, symbolic and formal, between different public entities. This paper adopts a relational framework to understand the presence of public interest lawyers in Taiwan and the complexity of their involvement in promoting, defending, or mobilizing for public good. I systematically analyze the bidirectional relationships that lawyers develop with government (both the administration and the parliament), political party, civil society (including NGOs and the general public), and the court. By examining two types of operation, lawyers in organizations and lawyers in mobilizations, I use the development offour NGOs and four social movements in Taiwan—gender, environment, labor, and China watch—to argue that the expertise of exchange leads to the prevalent... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5df2t197 Fri, 1 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Hsu, Ching-Fang https://escholarship.org/uc/item/43q7s46n <p>On July 1, 2018, China’s Supreme People’s Court published the “Provisions on Several Issues regarding the Establishment of International Commercial Courts.” The Provisions followed on the heels of a January announcement from the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms alluding to plans to establish a dispute settlement mechanism dedicated to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The Provisions confirmed that what the press had swiftly branded the “Belt and Road Court” (BRC) will comprise three international commercial courts. Regardless of analysts’ discipline or affiliation, the response to the initial proposal, and now to the framework laid out in the Provisions, has been predictably binary, reflecting a longstanding division in interpretations of China’s commercial dispute resolution policies.</p><p>One branch, call it the sociological school, explains China’s policies with reference to the country’s history and culture. It contends that a direct line may... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/43q7s46n Fri, 1 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Mollengarden, Zachary https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kx2x361 Public interest litigation (PIL) is a form of socio-legal activism. PIL originated in the United States, and spread, through the aggressive promotion of U.S.-centric rule of law, to China, where it has had a significant impact on socio-legal activism since the 1990s. This Article explores both the process through which human rights discourse is translated into practice by activist lawyers and human rights defenders, as well as the circumstances that cause socio-legal mobilization to fail or succeed. This Article examines the collective and sustained endeavour by human rights lawyers and other activists to advocate for the rights of specific communities through a rights complex, composed of activist lawyers, NGO leaders, and citizen journalists, as well as supporters within state institutions, Chinese society, and the international community. This Article looks at the institutionalized manner through which legal cases facilitate socio-legal mobilization to serve the broader objectives... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kx2x361 Fri, 1 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Hualing, Fu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23f9m00c Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23f9m00c Fri, 1 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/73g462r0 This article explores and analyzes the fourth century Chinese legal official and legal scholar Liu Song’s (d. 300) theory of adjudication through a full translation into English (the first translation of its kind) of his famous “Memorial on Adjudication,” which urged judicial and legal reforms during the reign of Emperor Hui (r. 290–306) of the Western Jin dynasty (265–316). This article argues that Liu believed that written law should reign supreme over other factors (e.g., societal needs, public opinion) in adjudicating cases. He was also one of the first major Chinese legal thinkers to explicitly set forth what we would today call the “legality principle.”  But while Liu’s theory of adjudication was centered on written law, it was also motivated by a desire to control the power and discretion of judicial officials and preserve the authority of the emperor. Liu’s theory of adjudication is significant in the history of Chinese legal thought as it runs counter to the so-called... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/73g462r0 Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Ho, Norman P. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6dh520vb Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6dh520vb Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59f9q7mh Platform economy breaks into the legal profession by pooling lawyers with different specializations into a simple user-friendly platform, consolidating the lower-tier supply side of the legal market and generating an economy of scale. This paper is the very first empirical piece looking into China’s online legal service portals. It shows that the intermediary functions of the portals as the “matchmaker” between the supply and the demand side are often comingled with certain substantive legal services that cannot be easily unbundled from each other. Given the grand information asymmetry in legal service provision and the potential importance users may attach to the portals’ recommendations, the quality of such intermediation and matchmaking still leaves much to be desired. However, the portals do help to improve the access to justice in China by virtue of offering an extra channel for acquiring and comparing potentially useful information, which is made available at a much lower... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59f9q7mh Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Li, Jing https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3c506252 Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3c506252 Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gg3b3fp <p>This Paper discusses the landmark decision by the WTO Dispute Resolution Panel that the Australian Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (“TPPA”) is consistent with its obligations under the TBT Agreement, the TRIPS Agreement, and the GATT, all of which are WTO Agreements.</p><p>It argues that Indonesia’s claim that the TPPA is discriminatory and contrary to its obligation of national treatment is unfounded. The Paper presents evidence of the health risks involved with tobacco use, and discusses why the TPPA falls under an exception to its obligations to the cited WTO Agreements.</p> Further, this Paper contends that the decision could lead to strict plain packaging regulations for other products in the future. However, tobacco has unique and significant health risks, and by comparing it to several products, the Paper explains why it is unlikely that these products will be subject to similar stringent packaging regulations in the future. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gg3b3fp Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Kelly, Lucas G. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vp6d29q Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vp6d29q Wed, 7 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hx9j5km <p>With the largest population in the Arab Middle East and a central location between Europe and East Asia, Egypt offers one of the biggest sources of franchising markets in the world for new business opportunities. Egypt, however, does not have specialized laws regulating franchising, which results in real challenges for investors who are seeking to franchise their businesses in Egypt, along with their legal advisors. It also creates problems for the courts who must rule on disputes arising from franchising transactions.</p><p>Because of this lack of formal legal guidance in Egypt, other laws, including contract, commercial and agency laws, have had a substantial impact on franchising. This inconsistency in application can lead to contradictions as to the specific nature of franchising, which can make it difficult to negotiate and decide various issues arising under franchise agreements. Further, the variety of applications can impose heavy burdens on franchising parties.</p><p>With... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hx9j5km Wed, 7 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Elsaman, Radwa S. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68w7q9dd <p>In 2017, after the election of Donald Trump and his subsequent language and actions surrounding global trade, Chinese President Xi Jinping took the world stage at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in a moment that led many to say he assumed the mantle of world leader on globalism and global trade, particularly in Asia. Previously, President Obama noted that the TPP presented an opportunity for the U.S., along with its partners, to write the rules of international trade with Asia-Pacific countries. At the same time, China has been working to negotiate another trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific Region, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The RCEP aims to be the largest free-trade bloc in the world, comprising all ten ASEAN nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six other countries with which ASEAN already has free-trade agreements (FTAs)—China, India, Japan, South Korea,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68w7q9dd Wed, 7 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Brown, Ronald C. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zr2w8cj Table of Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zr2w8cj Wed, 7 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0db1j44s <p>The Act on Anti-Terrorism<a>+</a> for the Protection of Citizens and Public Security passed in 2016 despite the longest filibuster in the history of Korean legislation. While counterterrorism legislation can often present dangers of overreaching state authority and risks to citizens’ rights in any country, the South Korean narrative is uniquely layered given the historical context of anti-communist discourse. This article argues that the Act mitigates accusations of human rights violations by assuming dual legal purposes of national security and disaster management as well as employing human rights discourse and safeguards within the law. However, expansive executive and agency discretion, ambiguities in terrorist discourse, and lack of due process undermine human rights compliance, endangering both citizens’ and foreigners’ rights against unwarranted government intrusion.</p><p><a>+</a> "This article follows the Korean government's translation of the law, which uses "Anti-Terrorism"... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0db1j44s Wed, 7 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Geodde, Patricia Kim, Weonwu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59h9f92m The counter-terrorist financing regime has been developed and diffused rapidly since the 9/11 attacks. The two central components of the regime are criminalization of acts of financing and confiscation of terrorist funds. These measures, which duplicate US laws on terrorist financing, have been designed to impose liability on, and confiscate assets and property of, those who finance or associate with terrorism regardless of whether there is a link between their act of financing or associating and a terrorist act. In the absence of such connection between the offense of terrorist financing and its subsequent crime of terrorism, a question arises: What is the legal basis for imposing liability on suspected financers and confiscating their assets and property? This ambiguity has never been properly addressed by the creators of the regime or by those who promote the regime. This paper explores whether and how this ambiguity has been addressed at the regional level among the Member... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59h9f92m Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Tofangsaz, Hamed https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41d104d5 Nowadays surrogacy contracts are becoming increasingly more frequent all over the world. Nonetheless, the complex juridical and ethical issues involved raise relevant doubts in legal orders. This article focuses on legislation regarding surrogacy in China and Taiwan. Due to its special state structure, legislative attitudes towards surrogacy are different in Taiwan, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and the Chinese Mainland. Although surrogacy is only expressly allowed in Hong Kong, surrogacy contracts are also used in other jurisdictions, even if they “exist” in a grey area. This article will give a brief introduction about surrogacy legislation in these four regions in China and reveal the differences amongst them, many of which are due to the cultural specificities of each territory. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41d104d5 Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Raposo, Vera Wai, U Sio https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3401f0tz [Table of Contents] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3401f0tz Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26m8k69w [Front Matter] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26m8k69w Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1s58k8fs <p>Today, multinational and domestic corporations in many industries are no longer self-contained vertical structures with permanent staff, but increasingly are horizontal organizations with fissured employment characteristics using outsourcing, franchising, and subcontracting with contractors and chains of subcontractors. Too often, the workers of the subcontractors suffer the consequences of the subcontractors’ cost cutting measures, work in unfavorable conditions, and have low wages and few benefits, all for the purpose of serving the interests and profitability of the primary corporation.</p> This paper therefore focuses on domestic laws that provide workers with an additional avenue of remedy from an expanded employment relationship—a doctrine of joint employer liability that places obligations “up the chain” on the in-country originating contractor who benefits from the supply chain or operates it for the benefit of the offshore multinational corporation. Some form of this... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1s58k8fs Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Brown, Ronald C. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9s43j99h [Front Matter] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9s43j99h Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w9079sw [Table of Contents] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w9079sw Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7hj4663v Transnational employment occurs when employees are sent to foreign countries by their employers to perform services. Transnational employment presents both employers and employees with a great deal of uncertainty. Despite drafted agreements, uncertainty still lingers due to the locally-regulated nature of labor and employment relations. Neither domestic regulations of labor and employment relations nor international law has thoroughly considered transnational employment. While transnational employment relationships have become common, the law has not evolved with this growth. This article will address how four countries in the Pacific Rim have confronted the growing complexities of transnational employment, including their visa processes, related laws and regulations, and their potential shortcomings. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7hj4663v Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Bales, Richard Alizia, Lia Banno, Masako Jockel, Maria Pang, Melissa Tso, Catherine https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41d3n13n <p>In Province of North Cotabato v. Government of the Republic of the Philippines Peace Panel on Ancestral Domain, the Supreme Court of the Philippines struck down a preliminary document that identified guideposts for future peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Separatists’ aspirations are unlikely to be embodied in existing Constitutions, since it is precisely because their aspirations are inconsistent with those of the majority that they are fighting against the State. As a result, peace agreements stretch Constitutions to make room for these aspirations. But when judicial review is invoked to check these agreements, peace agreements risk being declared unconstitutional. Few peace agreements then can survive judicial scrutiny because judicial review enforces the status quo, therefore judicial review makes attaining peace difficult or impossible.</p><p>To avoid a legal dead end, I propose an approach to the review of peace agreements. We presume that they... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41d3n13n Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Gatmaytan, Dante https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p6628zb How should the United States respond to Russia’s increasingly anti­competitive conduct in the oil and gas market, especially given the Russian military involvement in the crises in Ukraine and Syria and the Russian leadership’s increasingly vitriolic anti-Western sentiment? This Article contemplates the potential role of several federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and the United States Trade Representative, in the resolution of this issue. It then considers these various agencies’ potential restrictions to action, including both jurisdictional limitations and comity concerns. I use the resulting framework to analyze Russia’s anticompetitive conduct in the oil and gas industry to comparable issues, like anticompetitive action in the airline industry by foreign carriers and disruptive conduct in the international agriculture sector. Largely due to foreign policy concerns, previous Russian action, and the legal nuances of unilaterally... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p6628zb Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Curfman, Adam https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8435t56q <p>This article tries to challenge—more accurately, to supplement—the “politico-centered” view in understanding China’s free speech. Unlike the conventional view that only treats Article 35 as China’s free speech clause and mainly focuses on political speech, this article argues that China’s “free speech clause” includes not one, but three articles: 35, 41 and 47. While Articles 35 and 41 guarantee the right to political speech, Article 47 explicitly safeguards citizens’ right to cultural construction. The underpinning of this new interpretation is the dual constitutional ideal embedded in the Chinese Constitution: the Chinese people should be masters in both political and cultural areas. All speech, both political and cultural, that could further this dual ideal should be protected. Also, by tracing the development and changes of above three clauses in China’s three earlier Constitutions (the 1954 Constitution, the 1975 Constitution, and the 1978 Constitution) as well as the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8435t56q Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Zuo, Yilu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6gr416nk <p>Balancing judicial independence against judicial accountability is a classic problem, but the debate has often taken place without reference to specific legal cultures and traditions, and there is compelling reason to believe that the “right” balance may be different in different societies. Thailand is in transition, so the models of established Western democracies may be ill-suited to the problems and issues of the Thai judiciary. Moreover, independence and accountability are not ends in themselves, but means to the same end: that of fair, impartial, and effective justice. Independence can help, primarily by bolstering the “judicial courage” exercised by judges called upon to rule in difficult cases. Accountability can help as well, primarily by bolstering the “integrity” judges demonstrate in their performance on the bench. In light of this, the structural solutions for the judiciary under a new Thai constitution should be crafted in light of (1) the history, tradition, and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6gr416nk Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Pimentel, David https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3p27f8m2 [Front Matter] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3p27f8m2 Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0rk4r0kf [Table of Contents] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0rk4r0kf Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/07z1c491 <p>The case of Peter Humphrey and Yu Yingzeng, convicted in China on August 2014 on charges of unlawful acquisition of personal information of citizens (PIC), raises important issues about Chinese law. A narrow but important issue is how Chinese law draws the line between lawful and unlawful acquisition of information, a practice routinely carried out by businesses and individuals. This article examines the trial transcript and judgment in the Humphrey/Yu case and finds that it sheds regrettably little light on what remains a murky question. The judgment ignored the issue entirely, finding in effect that the collection of PIC was <em>per se</em> unlawful.</p><p>A broader issue is whether the Chinese legal system can be counted on to operate in a fair and impartial manner. This article presents the results of a study of all reported cases in Shanghai (ninety-two cases) involving the same provision of the Criminal Law that was the basis of the Humphrey/Yu conviction. It finds that... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/07z1c491 Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Clarke, Donald https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7902m0c4 [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7902m0c4 Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s1632q5 [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s1632q5 Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Alford, Roger P. Ku, Julian G. Xiao, Bei https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jf0q1kn Translator’s Introduction to Liu Songshan, <em>1981: Embryonic but Inchoate Designs for a Constitutional Committee</em> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jf0q1kn Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Hand, Keith J. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30m250db [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30m250db Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Brown, Ron https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ps0607b [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ps0607b Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0885g6cp Translator: Keith J. Hand https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0885g6cp Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Songshan, Liu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2hh980q3 Front Matter https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2hh980q3 Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Law Journal, Pacific Basin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vq6808n Understanding Traditional Chinese Law in Practice: The Implementation of Criminal Law in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vq6808n Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Ho, Norman P. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4wx1206r Power Harassment: The Tort of Workplace Bullying in Japan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4wx1206r Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Hsiao, Philip https://escholarship.org/uc/item/28w4m72d Revision of the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA): Relinquishing U.S. Legal Authority in the Name of American Foreign Policy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/28w4m72d Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Hill, Tyler J. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59n5w45z [No abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59n5w45z Mon, 6 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, Pacific Basin Law Journal https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5742d68k Calls for reform of the Chinese healthcare system are voiced at the highest levels of the Chinese government, but reform cannot succeed unless policymakers confront the incentives for corruption built into the institutional structure of the healthcare system. Focusing on the markets for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, this article isolates the special features of the Chinese healthcare system that are conducive to corruption. Without denying the responsibility of individual corporate representatives (both domestic and foreign), middlemen, and healthcare professionals, this article looks beyond the individual deals to document the underlying incentives for corruption by hospitals, physicians, and companies and explains how corrupt practices are currently organized. Finally, we argue that curbing the prevalent corruption requires efforts from both private companies and from the government. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5742d68k Mon, 6 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Rose-Ackerman, Susan Tan, Yingqi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/52s906df [No abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/52s906df Mon, 6 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Hirano, Nozomu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1223p2ww Because Indonesian courts are increasingly overrun with criminal cases, Indonesian lawmakers recently introduced a criminal procedure bill to include “special procedure” (jalur khusus), a procedure that allows defendants to plead guilty in order to increase efficiency. Unlike plea-bargaining in the United States, this procedure resembles China’s “summary procedure,” which is solely conducted by a judge, not negotiated independently by prosecutors and defendants. Before enacting the provision of special procedure, however, Indonesian lawmakers should learn from China’s successes and failures implementing summary procedure. While this procedure resulted in increased efficiency in China, it did not provide for defense counsel, and it resulted in an increased risk of false confessions. The author begins by describing the overcrowding of Indonesian courts and the need for increased efficiency. Next he describes several lessons from China’s experience by identifying China’s successes... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1223p2ww Mon, 6 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Ramadhan, Choky R. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2k45q2t0 This article covers the often-overlooked framework for developingtrade policy in the United States. With two major international trade agreements currently in the midst of negotiations, the stakes are high for industry groups and other-than-industry actors looking to have their interests manifested in the final texts of these plurilateral pacts. Historically, the voices of other-than-industry actors have been restrained by their underrepresentation among the highly-influential Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs), the most powerful cohort of committees in the trade policy framework. While the Obama Administration has sought to increase the potency of other-than-industry actors by creating additional opportunities for participation elsewhere in the trade policy framework, it is unclear that this solution provides the most effective remedy for groups seeking to exert greater influence in the trade policy arena. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2k45q2t0 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Simmons, Zachary Scott https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2224t09v [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2224t09v Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p8650mm China has a well-documented corruption problem that has continued for decades, evolving concurrently with China’s economy and various institutional structures.  In analyzing China’s corruption problem, the current definitions of corruption are inadequate to account for China’s guanxi culture, which requires gift giving in order to facilitate relationship building.  By some definitions, the behaviors that <em>guanxi</em> culture mandates for Chinese society are corrupt when government officials engage in them, perhaps even implying that Chinese culture itself is corrupt.  This is a mistake because it distracts from the actual causes of corruption. China’s corruption problem is caused by institutional and structural flaws that provide opportunities and incentives for corruption that would be exploited regardless of <em>guanxi</em> culture.  Thus, it is important to explicitly exclude legitimate <em>guanxi</em> practices from the definition of corruption in order to bring into better... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p8650mm Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Harding, Jacob https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5911549r Mediation is a participatory intervention process wherein disputing parties work with a third party, the mediator, to negotiate a resolution of their conflict [to be continued...] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5911549r Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Weixia, Gu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xf6r10c Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xf6r10c Sat, 26 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, [no author] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5g57c5bb [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5g57c5bb Tue, 22 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Klein, Bradley https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8103j1zv Contents https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8103j1zv Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 PBLJ, [no author] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6202b5zv [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6202b5zv Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Guyon, Rudy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/138043p4 [no abstract] https://escholarship.org/uc/item/138043p4 Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Cooke, Stephen D.