The Finnish China Law Center’s planned event on 15 November 2018 in its ‘One Belt, One Road’ Series, a public guest lecture and discussion on ‘China and One Belt, One Road in the Post-World War II International Legal System’, has been cancelled. The Center apologies for any inconvenience.
The Finnish China Law Center’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ Event Series
The public guest lecture and discussion was the latest of many events in the Finnish China Law Center’s series on China’s massive economic and strategic agenda, the so-called ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative. Other events held earlier in 2018 as part of the series include:
In addition to his position as Professor Public International Law at the, Professor Sheng is Director of the One Belt, One Road Judicial Research Institute of the Supreme People’s Court of China.
Professor Sheng’s academic interests focus on international law, international relations, international organisation, international humanitarian law and international criminal justice. He has published over eighty articles in leading academic journals at home and abroad, as well as six books: Challenges and Responses in International Criminal Law (2017), Constraints on the Use of Force—Legal Aspects of Armed Conflict in Early 21st Century (co-author, 2014), NGO’s in Contemporary International Relation (2004), United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Legal Aspects (2006), Developments in British Politics and Its Foreign Policy (2008) and State Responsibility under International Law in Anti-Terrorism Campaign (2008).
In June 2011, Professor Sheng was granted the title Qianjiang Professorship by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, China. He is Senior Colonel (Ret. & Res.) after retirement from military service in 2009. From April 2004 to April 2005, Professor Sheng was United Nations Expert on Mission for the MONUC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, serving as Team Leader of Military Observers and Senior Liaison Officer. He was also appointed by the Chief of the Mission Chair of Independent Board of Inquiry to review international criminal cases. In April 2005, he was granted the United Nations Medal (In the Service of Peace).
Professor Sheng Hongsheng (Shanghai University of Political Sciences and Law) will speak at the Finnish China Law Center on 15 November 2018. Photo credit: Sheng Hongsheng.
On 27-28 September 2018, Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki and a member of the board of the Finnish China Law Center, attended the 2018 annual summit of the New Silk Road Law Schools Alliance.
The 2018 Annual Summit included academic discussions and a meeting of Alliance deans.
The academic sessions included the book launch of the edited volume by Professor Wenhua SHAN, Professor Kimmo Nuotio, and Mr. Kangle Zhang. Professor Nuotio is Professor of Criminal Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki and Kangle Zhang, who also attended and spoke at the Summit, is a Doctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki.
The Summit also included presentations by participants from various member law schools on topics such as business activities and human rights along the Belt and Road (Professor Michael Hor of the University of Hong Kong), dispute settlement of electronic commerce (Professor Yun ZHAO of the University of Hong Kong), and environmental rights along the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative (Kangle ZHANG of University of Helsinki).
Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, in middle front of photo, pictured with other attendees of the Annual Summit of the New Silk Road Law Schools Alliance in RUDN University, 27-28 September 2018. Photo courtesy of RUDN University.
At the deans’ meetings, issues including academic collaboration amongst member law schools, publication of research results, comparative law education and student exchange programs.
On 12 November, the University of Lapland, in collaboration with the IPR University Center, hosted a seminar focusing on Chinese intellectual property law and China’s role in global governance.
The event was free and open to the public, and was of interest to a variety of audiences including lawyers, the business sector (including startups and entrepreneurs), students and scholars, as well as to the legislature and policymakers.
Event speakers included Professor Li Mingde, Director of the Intellectual Property Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a key Chinese partner of the Finnish China Law Center.
Professor Li Mingde of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Photo credit: http://www.iolaw.org.cn)
Other key speakers included ShengHongsheng, Professor of Public International Law at Shanghai University of Political Sciences and Law and Director of the OBOR Judicial Research Institute at the the Supreme People’s Court.
Professor Matti Nojonen, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Finnish China Law Center, also spoke.
Registration for the event was not compulsory. For those students who wished to gain 2 ECTS upon the attendance of the whole event, the event organized requested registration by 8 November.
According to the latest figures from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China filed the most patents of any country worldwide in 2015, with Chinese companies registering more than 1.3 million patents, in 2017, an increase of 14.2% per year since 2015. China’s rise as an economy focused on high-quality development, is a substantially significant economic event.
The expanding range of China’s economic interactions has provoked the most recent attention to China as an emerging superpower. China’s economic successes are impressive enough and deserve attention; they reflect China’s late entry into the international community, in organs such as UN and World Bank. Therefore, it is of vital importance to understand China’s role in the international legal system and to examining possible alterations in China’s foreign policy principles, laws and practices.
The seminar focused on different points:
Discussion of the ongoing reforms in these Chinese legal landscapes and contextualize and compare them to the ongoing reforms that are occurring in the European legal systems.
As Beijing has announced it will take more active role in international affairs, will the China’s traditional conventional role and approach to international law change?
During the meeting, Professor Chen said he was proud of the existing collaboration and expressed CASS Law Institute’s wish to continue to deepen collaboration with ongoing facilitation and coordination carried out by the Finnish China Law Center.
Professor Chen also noted that he was pleased with the outcomes of joint research collaboration, especially labour law research and associated publications.
Professor Letto-Vanamo and Professor Chen approved further collaboration on research and publications. They also agreed to begin preparations for the co-organization of next year’s (10th) joint comparative law seminar.
Pictured (left to right): Dr Yihong Zhang (University of Helsinki); Professor Ulla Liukkunen (University of Helsinki); Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo (University of Helsinki); Professor Chen Su (CASS); Professor Ditlev Tamm (University of Copenhagen); Professor Mo Jihong (CASS); and Professor Xie Zengyi (CASS). Photo credit: CASS.
(Thanks to Dr Yihong Zhang of the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki for contributing text for this article).
Aalto University, one of the 10 member institutions of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture, will host the Finland-China Business and Investment Summit on 15-16 October.
The Summit will be held in the Aalto University School of Business located at Runneberginkatu 14-16, Helsinki and is being co-organized by the Finnish Chinese Business Council and China Tekway Oy.
The event organizers have requested registration by 5 October. Details on how to register, a list of speakers and contact information for those seeking further information can be found in the program of the event.
Facade of the Aalto University School of Business. Credit: Aalto University
Background to the Finland-China Business and Investment Summit
According to the event organizers, China’s belt and road initiative presents increased opportunities for Chinese firms to do business in Finland and Finnish firms to do business in China – the world’s second largest economy and a rapidly growing market. As the closest point in Europe to China – with direct flights to seven cities in China, and with complementary skills – Finland is an ideal place for Chinese firms to start their business in Europe. The Second Finland-China Business and Investment Forum will help you grasp the opportunities this creates.
Based on the success of last year, the Finnish Chinese Business Council, China Tekway Oy and Aalto University School of Business will organize this year’s event with support of the Parliament of Finland, Chinese Embassy to Finland, Business Finland, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises and City of Helsinki.
Delegations of executives and investors from China and many leading executives of Finnish companies are expected to attend the event which will include a business forum and opportunities to take part in industry-focused face-to-face match-making to explore opportunities for concrete business cooperation.
The summit will be held in the morning of 15 October at the Aalto University School of Business. Match-making forums for companies will be arranged in the afternoon. The forums will focus on different industries:
1. Bioeconomy, Energy and Cleantech (Room C331)
2. IT, Networks and Digitalisation (Room A306)
3. Health and Wellbeing (Room A307)
4. Tourism, Sports, Education, and Other (Room A308)
Reflecting a topic increasingly under public debate given the escalating effects of climate change, environmental protection featured prominently during the latest comparative law seminar organized by the Finnish China Law Center and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
This year’s seminar focused on the environment and a range of other legal and social problems of global significance, as well as on effective responses to challenges raised by the inter-related and deepening processes of globalization and digitalization.
Co-organized and hosted on 20 – 21 September 2018 by the CASS Institute of Law with the support of the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, the annual academic event was the ninth conference aimed at robust discussion of emerging legal issues of joint social and academic significance.
Professor Wen began by noting that the first green revolution was based on high-intensive agriculture, which vastly increased crop yields from the mid-20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century, a discussion has emerged around the need for a second green revolution. This debate has arisen because of the serious issues associated with high intensity farming, including eutrophication and loss of biodiversity.
The second green revolution, according to Professor Wen, urges more environment-friendly and sustainable approaches. Recently, scientists have suggested that the domestication of new crops would promote agricultural diversity and solve many emerging environmental degradation caused by intensive agriculture.
Assistant Professor Wen Xiang speaking during the 9th Bilateral Comparative Law Seminar in Beijing, 20-21 September 2018
Domesticated crops refer to crops ‘in which the evolutionary process has been influenced by humans to meet their needs’. Professor Wen suggested that genome editing techniques (GETs) could be used as an efficient tool to accelerate the domestication of wild plants to providing enough food and livestock fodder in the future.
However, several legal issues pertaining to the feasibility of domesticating wild plants by GETs need to be addressed. Firstly, what kind of wild crops are to be domesticated and are they subject to existing international treaties such as Nagoya Protocol? Secondly, what will be the role of GETs in the process of domestication? Other questions arise arise, such whether this process should be subject to the current regulatory framework on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the EU, as well as and the implications of the ECJ ruling on GETs in July 2018.
In another presentation on environmental law, Professor Liu Hongyan of the CASS Institute of Law discussed the development of ecological rule of law in China, noting that political organizations and governmental organizations share the responsibility of supervising environmental protection in the country.
Professor Liu noted that judicial organs also actively facilitate administrative organs in enforcing environmental law. For example, the People’s Congress and the People’s Procuratorate are supervisory organs of the environmental law system and can bring up administrative litigation if needed.
The development of China’s environmental law, Professor Liu argued, has the following characteristics: First, the prevailing view is that China should build its environmental law system according to its own national conditions. Second, the development of the environmental law system is diversified. For example, some localities have become pilot points for new regulations before they are passed as laws. Third, the official position is that the enforcement of environmental law cannot be uniform, but instead should be promoted in different stages.
Professor Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson and Ms Yliheljo argued that there is a political call for a behavioural change in the transport industry towards more sustainable transport solutions, and discussed whether and how information related to emissions from carriage of cargo could be used to trigger environmentally friendly decisions and the use of transport alternatives with the lowest emissions.
Observing that emission information is already used as an instrument to combat emissions from transport in the aviation sector, through the European Emission Trading System (ETS) for example, Professor Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson and Ms Yliheljo argued that transport industries outside the ETS could also use emission information to reach the climate goals set for the industry. The scholars described how this could be done by ‘pushing’ the parties to actively consider the emissions from different transport alternatives. The information might work as a ‘nudge’ towards more environmental and greener choices, with new technology providing the necessary practical means for measuring the emissions and delivering the results in real time.
Professor Ellen Eftestøl-Wilhelmssonof the University of Helsinki speaking during the 9th Bilateral Comparative Law Seminar in Beijing, 20-21 September 2018
Another scholar from the CASS Institute of Law, Lin Xiaoxiao, analyzed the environmental damage compensation regime in China.
Professor Lin observed that the legal regime of public-interest environmental litigation is mainly reflected in the revision of the Procedural Law of the Civil Litigation. However, because other laws that are relevant to environmental litigation have not been revised, it is unclear how the laws should be interpreted in public-interest environmental litigation. Recently, there has been some new legislation that regulates public-interest environmental litigation, including the Land Law.
At present, the legal regime of public-interest environmental litigation has the following characteristics: (1) The purpose of environmental litigation is to determine environmental liabilities; (2) Procedural regulations are becoming more comprehensive; and (3) Substantive legal rules need to be complemented.
Public-interest environmental litigation is usually brought by environment groups, with leading cases including the Taizhou Public-Interest Case and the Dezhou Air Pollution Case.
Professor Lin said that the current legal regime of public-interest environmental has the following problems: (1) The piloting proposal of reforming the regime of ecological environmental damage cases issued by the State Council is not fully consistent with current legal regulations: (2) The definition of ecological environmental damage is not clear; and (3) It does not provide sufficient legal basis for plaintiffs’ claims for compensation.
Professor Liu Renwen, CASS Institute of Law, co-moderated with Professor Ellen Eftestøl-Wilhelmsson of the University of Helsinki a session on environmental law during the 9th Bilateral Comparative Law Seminar in Beijing, 20-21 September 2018
In addition to environmental law, the seminar covered rule of law, legal reforms in the context of the emerging Internet-based ‘sharing’ economy, trends in Chinese and Nordic labour law and social welfare systems and civil law issues.
The Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture, an umbrella organization of 10 Finnish member institutions with global partners in the Nordic region, China and beyond, conveys its warmest wishes for this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节).
‘The success of the 9th Sino-Finnish Comparative Law Seminar, hosted by the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing on 20 – 21 September, was no doubt in part due to the event’s auspicious timing’.
This year’s comparative law seminar with the CASS Institute of Law was doubly auspicious because it had, for the first time, broader Nordic representation.
‘On behalf of the Finnish China Law Center and its member institutions, I hope our friends and colleagues in China – and throughout the world – enjoyed a rewarding holiday period with friends, family and their loved ones’, says Professor Liukkunen.
The book, edited by University of Helsinki scholars Professor Kimmo Nuotio and Doctoral Candidate Kangle Zhang, is an international collaboration with Chinese scholars.
Professor Shan Wenhua, Dean of the School of Law and founding Director of the Silk Road Institute for International and Comparative Law (SRIICL) at Xi’an Jiaotong University, also co-edited the publication.
Front cover of the new publication (picture courtesy of Springer).
The edited volume of 12 chapters provides normative readings on China’s foreign affairs ‘master plan’ and signature policy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative.
‘The book focuses on aspects of the so-called ‘New Silk Road’ Initiative that we thought deserved more attention, such as issues relating to culture and legal philosophy, environmental law and protection, social responsibility, and the rule of law, judiciary and the role of lawyers’, Professor Nuotio says.
Opening remarks were delivered by Dr Harriet Lonka of the University of Eastern Finland and Tiina Lampisjärvi, Executive Director of the Finfood – Finnish Food Information.
A keynote was delivered by Dr Xiao Pinghui.
Dr Xiao is a senior lecturer at Guangzhou University Law School and a researcher (Sam Walton Scholar) affiliated to the Law School at the Center for Coordination and Innovation of Food Safety Governance of Renmin University of China. Since 2017 he has served as an officially accredited mentor of the National Food Safety Law Publicity Program launched by China Food and Drug Administration.
Dr Xiao Pinghui (Guangzhou University) will deliver a keynote address at the seminar. Photo supplied.
Another keynote was given by Professor Katja Weckström Lindroos.
Professor Weckström Lindroos is Professor of Commercial Law at UEF Law School, University of Eastern Finland. She specializes in intellectual property and international trade law with an emphasis on regulating emerging markets.
Professor Weckström Lindroos of UEF Law School. Photo supplied.
On 22 August 2018, the Finnish China Law Center, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, hosted a guest lecture titled ‘China’s Arctic Policy – The ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative and the Nordic Countries’.
China published its first Arctic Policy White Paper in January 2018 following years of preparation, including an introduction of a proposed ‘Polar Silk Road’. Prior to this, China joined the Arctic Council as an observer in 2013 and included the Arctic region in its Vision for Maritime Cooperation under the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative in June 2017.
What does it mean that China’s so-called ‘Belt and Road’ initiative has entered the Arctic region? How is this likely to affect potential Arctic investment and trade and influence legal developments?
This lecture will focus on China’s Arctic engagement, cooperation with the Nordic countries (including through the platform provided by CNARC), and its impact on Arctic developments in an evolving world order.
The event will be of interest to researchers, policy-makers, civil servants and those from civil society, as well as business people with an interest in both the Arctic region and in China’s overseas activities.
Egill Thor Nielsson, Executive Secretary of the China-Nordic Arctic Research Center, will speak in the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, on 22 August 2018. Photograph supplied.
University of Helsinki
