Doctoral defence: Balancing state interests with party autonomy in international commercial arbitration

On 8 March 2024, Iina Tornberg successfully defended the doctoral dissertation entitled “Balancing state interests with party autonomy in international commercial arbitration – Article 101 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union as a mandatory rule in Chinese International Economic and Trade Arbitration Center arbitration” on 8 March 2024.

Iina’s study of private international law (PIL) examines Article 101 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) as a mandatory rule in choice of law before the Chinese International Economic and Trade Arbitration Center (CIETAC) in Mainland China. It discovers how this EU competition law provision prohibiting restrictive agreements crucial for the operation of the European Union (the EU / the Union) functions as a choice of law rule – a rule defining when this particular EU competition law provision must be applied instead of the otherwise applicable provisions – in international commercial arbitration. It studies this mandatory provision in a foreign environment that is in CIETAC arbitration, where the provision’s nature as a fundamental provision essential for accomplishing the tasks entrusted to the Union, supposedly fails to be self-evident.

The public examination took place at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki.

Professor Lei Chen (Durham University) and Professor Sjef van Erp (University of Amsterdam) served as opponents, and Professor Ulla Liukkunen as the custos.

Her dissertation can be viewed at https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/9a3ba992-5adb-449a-ac3f-cc82eef5c9c9

From left to right: Professor Ulla Liukkunen, Iina Tornberg, Professor Sjef van Erp and Professor Lei Chen

CHINESE NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM THE FINNISH CHINA LAW CENTER

As we approach the Year of the Dragon, the Finnish China Law Center would like to extend warm wishes for a prosperous Chinese New Year to our Chinese, Nordic, and global friends and partners.

Reflecting on the past year, the Center has hosted numerous successful online and hybrid events covering a broad spectrum of topics in Chinese Law, including the distinguished 17th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association. Our heartfelt appreciation goes to all co-organizers, chairs, speakers, commentators, and participants for their unwavering support throughout 2023.

Looking ahead to 2024, the Center remains committed to fostering research and education in Chinese law and legal culture through a rich array of events and activities.

Stay connected with us on our social media platforms for the latest updates!

Image by Freepik

Introducing the new Director of the Finnish China Law Center

It is with great pleasure that we introduce Professor Kimmo Nuotio as the new Director of the Finnish China Law Center.

Kimmo Nuotio is Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law. He is also the Director of the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy. He is also a member of the PKU Law School Distinguished Global Faculty.

Professor Nuotio was the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki in 2010-2017 and the Chair of the Board of the Finnish China Law Center (2013 – 2019).

Professor Kimmo Nuotio played a pivotal role in establishing the Center, demonstrating commitment to fostering research and education on Chinese law and legal culture in Finland and collaboration with Chinese partners. Since 2009, he has actively engaged in building the cooperation between the Academy of Finland and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 2012, a significant milestone was achieved by the Academy of Finland’s specific funding call which was aimed at fostering Sino-Finnish legal research, providing the concretizing of the research interests of several member institutions of the Center in the form of six Academy of Finland-funded research projects. These projects were carried out through collaborative efforts between the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Law, and/or Chinese universities on one side, and their counterparts in Finnish universities on the other.

Professor Nuotio’s extensive efforts over the years also involved frequent visits to Chinese universities, where he actively promoted bilateral agreements. These agreements have formed the concrete basis for the expansion of Faculty-level cooperation. The Faculty of Law University of Helsinki has signed numerous mobility agreements covering both incoming and outgoing students, as well as research staff. This comprehensive approach includes esteemed institutions such as China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), Fudan University, Peking University (PKU), Renmin University of China, Wuhan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the University of Hong Kong, and Xi’an Jiaotong University. Notably, PKU stands out as a crucial and significant partner for the University of Helsinki, reflecting the depth and importance of their collaborative efforts.

With a distinguished background and extensive experience, Professor Nuotio brings an abundance of expertise and perspective to our organization.

Prof. Kimmo Nuotio giving guest lecture on ‘Agitation to Hatred as an Offense: Finnish, Nordic and European Perspectives’ at PKU Law School

On 17 October 2023, Professor Kimmo NuotioBoard Member of the Finnish China Law Center held a guest lecture on ‘Agitation to Hatred as an Offense Finnish, Nordic and European Perspectives’  as part of the PKU Law School Distinguished Global Faculty Lecture series.

Professor Nuotio’s lecture discusses the issues of agitation against population groups in Europe.  He mentions that in the Finnish Penal Code, a provision on the topic was first adopted in 1970 as required by the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination. The provision gained prominence following the 2015 immigration crisis in Europe, and the rise of far-right and nationalist movements such as the Nordic Resistance Front. He discusses the question of balancing freedom of speech and restricting illiberal and racist utterances, citing the prohibition of the Nordic Resistance Front in Finland case as an example.

Professor Nuotio further addresses specific issues such as the use of Nazi symbols, Holocaust denial as an offense, and the need for legal provisions against it in Finland and other EU member states. He talked about the relationship between religion and hate speech, mentioning that Finland still has a penal provision for breach of religious peace whereas the other Nordic states already have abolished them. The lecture also highlights the ongoing debate on how to protect freedom of speech while safeguarding minority populations.

The Evolving Case Law System in China

On 26 September 2023, a hybrid seminar titled “The Evolving Case Law System in China” was jointly hosted by the Finnish China Law Center and GENIAL. The event featured Qiao Liu, Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong as the speaker, and  Jaakko Husa, Full Professor in Law and Globalisation at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki presided as the chair of the seminar.

Professor Qiao Liu at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, 26 September 2023

Professor Liu described judges making law as an inevitable trend in China which arises from the abstractness of the provisions of laws, the imperative to to maintain consistency in judicial decisions as well as the vertical control exercised by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) over lower courts.

Professor Liu elaborated that the SPC is empowered to select, edit and re-write its own judgments and cases from lower levels and publish them as guiding cases. All guiding cases are approved by the SPC Judicial Committee and adopt a defined structure and style. People’s courts of all levels should canzhao [参照,] guiding cases when deciding similar cases. He emphasized that this entails that the people’s courts should not only consider but also follow these guiding cases. The guiding cases, however, function differently from precedents in common law systems.  While the people’s courts may cite guiding cases in the legal reasoning section of judgment, only essential points/rules section of a guiding case should be canzhaoed. The application of guiding cases is increasing, yet judges frequently refrain from expressly citing them within their judgments.

In addition, cases and SPC judgments published on the SPC Gazette, although lacking legal binding, can have influence in judicial practice.  The extent of this influence varies depending on specific circumstances. Not only the cases published in the SPC Gazette, but  judgments decided by higher-level or specialized courts also carry weight. These cases may assume special significance within a field of law. For instance, an earlier decision of a High People’s Court may directly impact the decision of an Intermediate People’s Court below, or a decision of a specialized court may be viewed as persuasive authority on legal issues falling within its area of expertise.

 

Professor Qiao Liu and Professor Jaakko Husa at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, 26 September 2023

 

17th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association concluded with astounding success

The conference was a resounding success, with 27 panels and 2 roundtables delving into a wide array of topics crucial to Chinese law development as well as teaching of Chinese law in Europe and European academic co-operation with China.

This achievement owe much to the efforts of the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law, European China Law Studies Association and active participation of all speakers and attendees.

Additionally, we are grateful to Joel Toivola Foundation and Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation that generously provided funding, as their support made this event possible.

Johanna Niemi, Dean of University of Helsinki Faculty of Law and Björn Ahl, President of the European China Law Studies Association giving concluding remarks, 22 September 2023, Helsinki
Group photos of the Conference participants, 22 September 2023, Helsinki

Hybrid Guest Lecture: Transnationalizing Labour Law: A Chinese Perspective

On 5 September 2023, Visiting Professor Yifeng Chen will give a hybrid guest lecture on ‘Transnationalizing Labour Law: A Chinese Perspective’. The event will be in hybrid (live & online) format.

Time:  5 September, 13:15 – 14:45 Finnish time

Venue: Zoom and Room P545, 5th floor of the Porthania Building (Faculty of Law), University of Helsinki, Yliopistonkatu 3, Helsinki

The event is free and open to all audiences. You can attend the seminar via Zoom or in person at Room P545 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki.

We kindly ask you to register by 4 September by completing the following electronic form:

https://www.lyyti.in/Transnationalizing_Labour_Law_A_Chinese_Perspective_9600 

Background of the presentation

Transnationalizing Labour Law: A Chinese Perspective

Transnationalization has been a visible trend of development in the regulation of labour conditions over the past two decades. Labour provisions can be found increasingly in free trade agreements, labor standards of international financial institutions, documents of corporate social responsibilities and so on. The transnationalizing of labour regulations has brought imminent challenges to the presumption of territoriality underlying national as well as international labour laws. The challenges are particularly acute in China where labour regulations are seen as domestic and thus irrelevant to its international policies. The presentation examines the development of transnational labour law and its impact on China. It further explores the potential role China may play in positively addressing the South-North gap in the current project of transnational labour law.

About the speakers

Yifeng Chen is an Associate Professor at the Peking University Law School and Deputy Director of the Peking University Institute of International Law. Before joining the Peking University, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki from 2010-2013. His fields of interest include international law, international organizations, international and comparative labour law.

 

Online Seminar: The Application of the Proportionality Principle by Chinese Courts

On 20 June 2023, the Finnish China Law Center will hold an online mini seminar on “The Application of the Proportionality Principle by Chinese Courts” at 10:15-11:45 Helsinki time (9:15-10:45 CEST / 15:15-16:45 CST).

The event will be chaired by Björn Ahl, Professor and Chair of Chinese Legal Culture at the University of Cologne and President of the European China Law Studies Association.

The seminar programme can be found here.

The seminar is free and open to all. Zoom link for the event will be sent to registered participants.

We kindly ask you to register by 18 June by completing the following electronic form:

https://www.lyyti.in/The_Application_of_the_Proportionality_Principle_by_Chinese_Courts_4133 

Background of the presentation

Selective Application of the Principle of Proportionality in Chinese Administrative Litigation

This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the application of the principle of proportionality in administrative trials, based on published online judicial decisions. The analysis reveals an imbalanced impact with regards to its three sub-principles. We observe that the level of support obtained from national legislation in applying the principle of proportionality, a factor previously overlooked, significantly influences the outcomes. Our findings indicate that both the principle of necessity and the narrowly-defined principle of proportionality demonstrate mediating effects in the correlation between national legislation and judicial decisions, suggesting that judges selectively apply the proportionality principle in administrative trials. We propose two strategies to promote the localization of the principle of proportionality. For the principles of appropriateness and necessity, actualization can be achieved in line with the current surge in administrative law codification. As for the narrowly-defined principle of proportionality, a proper understanding and handling of the relationship between public and private interest is essential. Furthermore, judges should be urged to explicitly delineate the criteria for assessing relevant interests during their reasoning process to improve the objectivity of interest measurement.

State-centric Proportionality Analysis in Chinese Administrative Litigation

This article examines the application of proportionality in Chinese administrative litigation over the last two decades, and argues that courts in administrative litigation that serve the party-state and tend to uphold state/collective interest have altered proportionality to be state-centric. It finds that the courts invoked proportionality in a negligible portion of all administrative litigation judgments and had inadequate emphases on protecting individual rights. Proportionality has not appreciably assisted the courts in enhancing their oversight of governmental power and protection of individual rights. This article suggests that this is attributed to the restricted function of administrative litigation in China’s party-state governance structure and owing to the country’s long-held belief that public interest takes precedence over individual rights. Administrative litigation, which China’s ruling party employs to resolve principal-agent issues, is seriously constrained. The courts are expected to review the formal legality of executive actions, but not their substance. Informed by the Chinese human rights belief, which favors collectivism over individualism, the courts are skewed toward public interest in the balancing analysis when applying proportionality.

About the speakers

Dr. Xiaohong Yu is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Prior to her position at Tsinghua, she served as an An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and was a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University. Her primary research interests include Chinese politics, comparative judicial politics, and empirical legal studies. She continually explores China’s judicial reforms, the interplay between law and politics in China, and instructs courses such as “Judicial Politics” and “Law and Politics in the Era of Big Data.” Her scholarly work has been featured in leading domestic and international journals and academic presses, including the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, China Review, Cambridge University Press, CASS Journal of Political Science, Tsinghua Law Review, Open Times, and China Law Review, among others.

Dr. Shiling Xiao is a Post-doctor Research Fellow at the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong. He obtained his PhD in law from HKU, MPhil in international and comparative law from the University of Macau, and LLB from the Southwest University of Political Science and Law. He was a practising lawyer in Mainland China and was called to the bar in 2018. His research interests embrace comparative public law, human rights law and judicial review. His publications appear in International Journal of Constitutional Law, Hong Kong Law Journal, Journal of Comparative Law and others.

Result of the Call for Papers for the 17th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association

The result of the Call for Papers for the 17th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association has been sent to all participants. If you have submitted an abstract/proposal, please check your email inbox and spam/junk folder just in case the email has been filtered there.

A large number of abstracts/proposals were submitted, and we were very impressed with the quality and diversity of the papers we received. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the participants for their interest and contributions.

If you have been accepted to present your paper, congratulations! We look forward to your presentation during the conference. If,  your paper was not selected, please do not feel discouraged. The selection committee reviewed a considerable amount of excellent submissions this year, of which we were only able to select a certain portion for the conference. We encourage you to continue your research and try again next time.

Online Seminar: Chinese Companies Abroad and the Host Country’s Laws: the Case of Dirty Industries in Serbia

On 4 April 2023, University of Helsinki Chinese Studies and the Finnish China Law Center will hold an online seminar on “Chinese Companies Abroad and the Host Country’s Laws: the Case of Dirty Industries in Serbia“. The event will be moderated by Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Time: Tuesday 4 April, 14:00-15:30 Helsinki Time (13:00-14:30 CEST)

Venue: Online. Please register before Friday 31 March at https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/122724/lomake.html to receive link.

The activities of Chinese companies abroad are an integral part of the robust transformation of today’s economic, geopolitical, and sociocultural landscapes at the local, regional, and global levels. The presence of Chinese capital abroad has been encountering and provoking a wide range of reactions among different political and social actors—from suspicion, reservation, and resistance to warm welcome and exceptional enthusiasm.

This talk will look at the ongoing situation in Serbia, a country governed by a regime that has been among the closest partners of the Chinese government and Chinese companies in Europe and beyond. The talk will focus on the legal dynamics that enable and maintain the much acclaimed “iron-clad friendship” between the two countries and the energetic economic interactions between their governments and businesses. The legal dynamics in question pertain to the Chinese companies that work in Serbia’s dirty industries, namely the production of tires, iron, and steel. Special attention will also be paid to the analysis of the legal aspects of China’s presence in Serbia’s copper and gold mining industry.

About the Speaker

Dušica Ristivojević is a senior researcher in the Department of Cultures of the University of Helsinki. Dušica specializes in the longue-durée dynamics of China’s global interactions, print and digital media, and social organizing in and out of China. She is finalizing her book manuscript on the transnational links of China’s political movements and is observing the country’s presence in Europe’s Eastern peripheries with regard to dirty industry and digital technology.

The Social Credit System in China

On 17 November 2022, the Finnish China Law Center held an online seminar on the topic of ‘The Social Credit System in China ‘. The event is part of the Center’s mini seminar series on topical issues of Chinese law.

The event began with a presentation on “Debating the Legality of Social Credit in China – A Review of Chinese Legal Scholarship” by Björn Ahl, Professor and Chair of Chinese Legal Culture at the University of Cologne and President of the European China Law Studies Association. Björn explained that Chinese legal scholars conceptualize the social credit system (SCS) as an emerging ‘reputation state’ or as an unprecedented instance of ‘social engineering’. The SCS is consisted of three main pillars: the financial credit industry, credit tools to enforce laws and court decisions as well as mechanisms to strengthen the integrity of government affairs. Compared to the other areas of the SCS, the regulatory environment of financial credit is relatively mature and relevant data protection laws provide for a basic level of legal protection of data subjects including effective legal remedies. Government integrity in the third pillar is facilitated by the extension of the credit disciplinary measures to state organizations and personnel. While the first and third pillar are less controversial as there exist basic legal protections with regard to the former and the latter is neither well-developed nor directed at private entities, the recent legal debates and thus Björn focused on the second pillar that has developed ‘social credit tools’, in particular joint disciplining for trust-breaking mechanisms, in order to strengthen the enforcement of law and court decisions.

The second speaker, Marianne von Blomberg, Research Associate and PhD candidate at the Chair of Chinese Legal Culture, University of Cologne discussed “Reputational Regulation through the Social Credit System”. Marianne first clarified that the SCS is not a national social credit score for each citizen but is many local pilot projects, some of which use scores. The punishments are not based on scores but on violations of the law. She went on to examine the SCS and its disciplinary measures including formal joint agency disciplining, and reputational disciplining through local government websites, local social credit information platforms, national social credit, information platforms, State agency websites, regional newspapers, map apps in Wechat, regional TV and radio, broadcasting and warnings in dial tones. Marianne also explored the large-scale disclosure of government information, which lies at the core of SCS reputational punishment, has long been implemented in China as access to government data empowers public oversight over state administrations. This purpose was first manifested in the Open Government Information Regulations passed in 2007, which mandate administrative agencies to disclose information to increase the level of transparency in government work. Governmental information disclosure can, in a different fashion, also serve regulators. Regulators disclose, or mandate organizations to disclose themselves, information that indicates how well they comply with laws and regulations Such regulatory disclosure is based on the idea that the engine for change is reputation, and the fuel for that engine is information.

The seminar concluded with insightful comments on the topic by Huifen Yin, Associate Professor at the School of Law, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.