The newly-established Sino-Finnish Research Center for Science, Technology and Innovation (Sino-Finnish STI Center), co-founded by Finnish China Law Center member institution the University of Vaasa and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Strategy and Development, held an International Forum on Energy Transition during Vaasa EnergyWeek (19 – 23 March 2018).
The International Forum on Energy Transition was held from 8:30-15:30 on 20 March 2018 at Vaasa City Hall (8:30-12:30) and Fabriikki F118, University of Vaasa (13:30-15:30). The event was free and open to all.
Full program and list of speakers
The purpose of the International Forum on Energy Transition was to engage policy makers, research experts and industrial practitioners from China and Europe to discuss energy transition activities and related policies policies. By doing so, the organizer’s hoped to promote international cooperation between China and Europe towards green growth.
Speakers at the Forum included Dr Jari Kuusisto (Rector of University of Vaasa), Pan Jiao Feng (President of Chinese Academy of Sciences Institutes of Science and Development), Professor Bai Quan (Vice-Director of the Energy Efficiency Center, Energy Research Institute, National Development and Reform Commission), Joakim Strand (Member of Parliament of Finland), Guo Xiaoguang (Counselor of Chinese Embassy to Finland) and more.
The full program and list of speakers can be found here.
Picture credit: https://www.energyweek.fi/
About the Sino-Finnish STI Center
The aim of the new Sino-Finnish STI Center is develop a think tank supporting policy makers and business in Europe and China. The Center’s mission is to address environmental and societal challenges and promote economic growth by means of conducting policy studies on science technology and innovation.
The Kone Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation with a mission to make the world a better place by advancing initiatives in research and the arts, offered two 4 to 6 month-long scholarships to conduct research in China. The cut-off to apply for those scholarship was 28 March 2018.
The Finnish member universities of the Fudan Nordic Center are the University of Helsinki, the University of Eastern Finland, Hanken School of Economics, the University of Lapland, the University of Tampere and the University of Turku. All of these universities are also member institutions of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law.
The scholarship program is intended to support and expand China-related research conducted in the Finnish universities. The aim is to stimulate researchers to expand their research focus towards research connected with China and to facilitate longer research periods in China. When possible and relevant, doctoral candidates can attend teaching offered by the Fudan Nordic Centre.
Further information and application process
More information about the scholarships, including the full Call for Applications and instructions on how to apply, can be found on Asianet’s website.
Logo of the Nordic Center, Fudan University, China
According to Feedspot.com, the ranking was based on the following criteria:
Google reputation and Google search ranking
Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter and other social media sites
Quality and consistency of posts; and
Feedspot.com’s editorial team and expert review.
The ranking was released on 21 February 2018 and the rankings list will be updated weekly.
‘I’m pleased at the attention the Finnish China Law Center’s blog is attracting from the Nordic region, China and around the world’, says Stuart Mooney, who manages the blog and is the Coordinator of the China Law Center.
‘The blog is an important forum through which the Center communicates with its stakeholders about the China law-related education and research activities of the Center and its 10 member institutions.’
‘We also use the blog to highlight the important contribution of our international partners, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Peking University, in promoting China law-related education and research in the Nordic region, as well as Nordic collaboration with Chinese scholars and institutions in the fields of comparative and international law’, Stuart says.
Scholars revisited discussions of the Chinese model of governance and articulate the old and new features of Xi Jinping’s model of governance. Most current research on the China model debates whether there is such model, and the characteristics and essences of the model if it exists. This conference discussed, from a variety of perspectives including critical empirical case studies, the various manifestations of the Chinese model of governance, ranging from local governance, local election, civil society to economic policies.
Opening Remarks were given by Professor Julie Yu-Wen Chen of the University of Helsinki. Keynote speakers at the conference were Oscar Almén, Uppsala University, Sweden, and Zhongyuan Wang from Fudan University, China.
Constantin Holzer of University College Cork spoke on ‘The Principal-Agent Dichotomy of Public Goods Provision in China and The Role of Entrepreneurship’ and Natalie Ruvimbo Hodzi (University of Helsinki) discussed Zimbabwean elite opinions of China’s model of governance. Other presentations and remarks were given by Adam Knight (Oxford University), Riccardo Berti and Mariagrazia Semprebon (lawyers from Italy) and Coleman Mahler (UC Berkeley).
Questions and media inquiries
Questions about the conference can be directed to the Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Helsinki, Professor Julie Chen, at julie.chen (at) helsinki.fi.
The Finnish China Law Center, composed of 10 member institutions and based in the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, would like to convey its sincerest wishes for the Chinese New Year to its friends and partners in China, the Nordic countries, and around the world.
‘At the start of the Year of the Dog’, says Professor Ulla Liukkunen, Director of the Center, ‘the Finnish China Law Center would like to reiterate how much we value our friendships and partnerships in China and internationally’.
‘We will continue to widen and deepen our international relationships in the upcoming year, during which we have planned an exciting array of events and activities on Chinese law and legal culture in Finland and China’.
祝你新年快乐!
Questions about the activities of the Center, including the upcoming China Law Research Workshop to be held on 19 April 2018, can be directed to the Coordinator of the Finnish China Law Center, stuart.mooney (at) helsinki.fi.
ELSA is an international, independent, non-political and non-profit organisation run by and for students and recent graduates interested in achieving academic and personal excellence in addition to their legal or law-related studies at university.
The visit by ELSA was hosted by Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki.
Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, speaking during the ELSA visit
Dean Letto-Vanamo is a legal historian and comparative lawyer specialized in European legal history, history of European integration, Nordic legal culture(s) and transnational law, with a strong interest in Chinese law and Chinese legal culture.
During her opening speech at the event, Dean Letto-Vanamo delineated the history of comparative law and Chinese legal education and scholarship in Finland, and underscored the increasing importance of understanding Nordic law not just in its European context, but from the global perspective, including in comparison with Chinese law.
Professor Ulla Liukkunen, also of the University of Helsinki, was another speaker at the event. Professor Liukkunen is Director of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture and has been recently elected as a Member of the Board of Directors of the European China Law Studies Association (欧洲中国法研究协会).
Professor Ulla Liukkunen, Director of the Finnish China Law Center, sharing her experiences as a China law researcher with visiting ELSA students
Professor Liukkunen spoke about the Finnish China Law Center’s role in facilitating and promoting China law and comparative law research, and about the increasing Nordic-wide approach to Chinese legal education and research. During her presentation, Professor Liukkunen also drew upon her research in Chinese law and comparative law involving China, and highlighted the importance of taking local conditions and culture into consideration when conducting comparative research with Chinese law.
Dr Yihong Zhang giving the main presentation during the ELSA student visit
Dr Zhang, who lectures at the University of Helsinki and is responsible for its popular annual summer school program in Chinese law, drew upon her academic and professional experience in China when discussing the Chinese legal system in a comparative context, including its foundations, sources of law, the way law is applied and enforced, and current legal ‘hot topics’ in China.
A short discussion followed Dr Zhang’s presentation, during which time students asked questions about China’s criminal justice system and the rule of law in China.
The Center strongly encourages students – and anyone else – interested in Chinese law and legal culture to follow its blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Questions about Chinese law can be directed to the Coordinator of the Center, Stuart Mooney, at stuart.mooney (@) helsinki.fi.
Luova’s current research investigates how China’s environmental governance is imbued with local experiments and variation. She has found that enforcement of environmental regulations varies greatly.
‘There are striking differences in enforcement between the bureaucratic North and flexible South, and the wealthy East and less-developed West’, Luova says.
‘The recent re-centralization efforts and stricter environmental policy enforcement have not been effective in diminishing variation because of strong local interests and weak capacities in many cities’.
According to Luova, slack enforcement means that there can be large diversity in implementation even among sub-municipal units in a city.
‘It is therefore very important to pay attention to regional variation when dealing with China’.
‘Mega-city districts are nowadays powerful actors. With sub-municipal variation remaining unexplored, my recent research project has analysed the implementation of environmental policies and regulations in three urban districts in the city of Tianjin’, she says.
Outi Luova, Director of the Finnish University Network for Asian Studies and Vice Director of the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) at the University of Turku, guest lecturing in China in October 2017.
In conducting her in-country research, Luova has faced increasing challenges in obtaining official documents and arranging interviews with Chinese civil servants as a result of a ‘tightening political atmosphere’.
‘I have been able to conduct interviews only thanks to my simultaneous participation in official sister-city delegation visits to Tianjin’, Luova says.
‘During my visits to China, I arranged focus-group interviews at city and district level departments of education and environmental protection. I also had a possibility to visit several so called “green schools” in Tianjin and get acquainted with local environmental NGOs’.
In addition to urban governance in China, Luova’s teaching and research interests include regional cooperation in East Asia, domestic migration in China, management of international labour migration in China and East Asia, ethnic issues in China and more generally, regional features and differences in China.
Luova’s research on regional differences in the implementation and enforcement of environmental law and policy in China, ‘Environmental policies enter the educational sector: Different shades of green at district level’, will be published in Greening China’s Urban Governance: Tackling Environmental and Sustainability Challenges (Jørgen Delman, Ren Yuan, Outi Luova, Mattias Burell, Oscar Almén eds) by Springer in 2018. Other related publications are also in the pipeline.
The Joel Toivola Foundation is an independent Finnish foundation supporting Finnish academic studies on China.
The Foundation awards grants for talented young scholars in the fields of humanities and social science research on China, as well as for Finnish students’ Chinese linguistic studies in China.
The last deadline for applying for grants, including Research Fellowship and travel funds, closed on 15 February 2018 at 16:00.
Further information on the grants and detailed application instructions can be found on the Foundation’s website.
For further information on the Joel Toivola Foundation, please contact Foundation’s Executive Director, Mr. Mikko Eskola at saatio@helsinkinet.fi.
About Joel Toivola
According to the website of the Joel Toivola Foundation, Ambassador Joel Toivola (1915-1999) worked for the Finnish Foreign Service in several important posts for more than three decades. He is especially remembered as a great friend of China and throughout his career encouraged relations between Finland and the People’s Republic of China. Mr. Toivola served as the Ambassador of Finland to Beijing from 1961 to 1967.
The purpose of the Rector’s visit was to underscore the significance the University of Helsinki attaches to its friends and partners in China.
During his visit, Rector Kola further developed the important relationship between the University of Helsinki and Peking University, a key partner institution in China of the Finnish China Law Center.
Rector of the University of Helsinki Jukka Kola speaking with Professor Chen Yifeng of Peking University at the China Alumni Club event held at the residence of the Finnish Ambassador to China on 14 October 2017 (Photo credit: Helsingin yliopiston alumniyhdistys)
More about Professor Chen’s engagement and research in the University of Helsinki and the Finnish China Law Center can be found in the recently published Report on the First Four Years of the Center.
Sanna Villikka, acting Head of Administration of the Faculty of Medicine, was also part of the Rector Kola’s delegation.
Ms Villikka visited China in her former capacity as Senior Advisor in Research Funding Services at the University of Helsinki’s City Centre Campus. The purpose of her trip was to develop staff exchange between the University of Helsinki and Peking University, to further enhance the University of Helsinki’s relationship with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and to emphasize the high esteem with which the University of Helsinki views its relationship with the Faculty of Law of Peking University.
Another important visit to China was by then Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Kimmo Nuotio.
Professor Kimmo Nuotio of the University of Helsinki speaking at the CASS Rule of Law Forum, Beijing, November 2017 (Photo credit: Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Professor Nuotio joined the Annual Meeting of the Silk Road Law Schools Alliance hosted by Wuhan University.
Professor Kimmo Nuotio and Doctoral Candidate Zhang Kangle of the University of Helsinki with representatives from other institutions involved in the Silk Road Law Schools Alliance, at the Alliance’s annual meeting in November 2017 (Photo credit: Wuhan University)
Professor Nuotio was invited to give public lectures at universities across the country, including Peking University, the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Wuhan University, Shandong University, and Wuhan University of Technology.
Professor Nuotio also gave a presentation at the Chinese Academy of Social Science’s annual international Rule of Law conference in Beijing.
Professor Sakari Melander of the University of Helsinki speaking at the CASS Rule of Law Forum, Beijing, November 2017 (photo credit: Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences).
In addition to her many academic and professional responsibilities, including serving as a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists, Professor Petman also visits and lectures at the prestigious Peking University Law School on a regular basis.
Senior Lecturer (att. to the duties of Professor) of the University of Helsinki / University of Turku and Sanna Villikka (University of Helsinki) in Beijing, October 2017 (Photo credit: Sanna Villikka)
The CIMO project, the result of an application made by Kangle Zhang, was jointly managed by several staff of the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki prior to its conclusion at the end of 2017.
During its two years of operation, the project facilitated a range of successful activities that deepened collaboration between the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki and Peking University Law School.
The end of 2017 also saw a flurry of visits from China to Finland.
These inbound visits included two delegations in November alone.
These include a China Law Workshop (Helsinki, April – tbc), the 9th Bilateral Comparative Law Seminar (Beijng, August – tbc) with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the 6th China-Europe Legal Forum with the China Law Society (Helsinki, November – tbc).
Follow the Finnish China Law Center on Twitter (@ChinaLawCenter) and Facebook (@ChinaLawCenter) to keep up-to-date with the latest news, events, publications and other activities of the Center and its member institutions.
Speeches during the event, which was organized by Professor Jan Klabbers and Post-Doctoral Researcher Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça, evoked Liu Xiaobo’s experience, investigated its legacy and reflected on broader themes of China’s constitutional, rights, ethics and international relations thinking and practice.
The event’s keynote speech was given by Jean-Philippe Béja of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique & Centre de recherches internationales, who spoke on ‘Liu Xiaobo’s Legacy: Life in Truth, the Magic Weapon Against Post-Totalitarian Lie’.
Other speakers included Hermann Aubié (Aston University), who spoke on ‘Unlearning Enmity and Hatred: Listening to Liu Xiaobo’s Voice of Conscience by Revisiting his Struggle for Human Dignity and a Future Free China’ and Fu Hualing (University of Hong Kong), who spoke about public interest lawyering in China.
Professor Jan Klabbers speaking on ethical leadership in Helsinki, 12 January 2018
Professor Panu Minkkinen of the University of Helsinki spoke about the significance of human rights in the context of critical legal theory, after which Eva Pils (King’s College, London) discussed ‘China’s Dual State And Its ‘Enemies’ Under Xi Jinping’.
Professor Fu Hualing speaking during the ‘The Legacy of Liu Xiaobo’ conference in Helsinki, 12 January 2018
Professor Jan Klabbers of the University of Helsinki discussed ethical leadership, drawing upon his research on virtue ethics, and Post-Doctoral Researcher Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça’s (University of Helsinki) talk covered values and China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’.
Presentations were also given by Associate Professor Michael W. Dowdle (National University of Singapore), Professor Ralph Weber (University of Basel) and Professor Justin Tiwald (San Francisco State University), and the morning and afternoon sessions were chaired respectively by Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Maria Varaki and Associate Professor Pamela Slotte.
Dr Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça, an organizer of the event, speaking on values and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, University of Helsinki, 12 January 2018
The 2017 conference, held on 17–18 November in Beijing, was divided into five thematic areas.
Professor Viljanen spoke on the theme ‘The Rule of Law, Constitution and State Governance’.
In his lecture, Professor Viljanen discussed the Finnish experience on amending the constitution, noting that Finnish constitutional laws were extensively reformed in 1980-90’s.
This progress was illustrated by the drafting of the 2000 Constitution. The Constitution was planned to endure over time and as the Constitutional Law Committee has stated, there should not be constant demand to review the Constitution.
Professor Jukka Viljanen speaking at CASS Rule of Law Forum, Beijing, November 2017 (photo credit: Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences).
Professor Viljanen outlined how the threshold to make changes to the constitution has increased. In order to make changes a wide societal consensus must be achieved. In Finnish political history, there has been a tradition of coalition governments and a requirement that approval by two parliaments, with general elections between them, is required. This ensures that all parties are involved in the drafting process of the Constitutional amendments.
‘The contemporary approach connects each review of the constitutional provisions to fundamental principles of the Constitution’, Professor Viljanen observed.
‘At the same time, it also highlights the need to follow our international human rights commitments’.
As Professor Viljanen explained, even in the case of surveillance laws, there are no ‘free hands’. Rather, national application of laws goes hand-in-hand with European supervision. The level of scrutiny is, of course, different in each specific circumstance.
A session during the CASS Rule of Law Conference, Beijing, 17–18 November 2018 (photo credit: Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences).
In his talk, Professor Viljanen also explained the pending process of amending the constitution in relation to surveillance laws, a ‘hot topic’ in Finland at the moment. The review was founded on the requirements set out by the European Convention on Human Rights.
‘National security as a legitimate aim traditionally affords a wide margin of appreciation to national authorities’, Professor Viljanen said.
‘However, there are also limits to this margin’.
In order to make the working proposal to be in line with the European case law, the failures that took place, for instance, in the Russian case of Roman Zakharov, serve as a telling reminder for the Finnish legislator.
‘This means that in addition to the textual re-formulation of the Constitution, the practice of the Constitutional Law Committee should follow closely the standards set out by the Strasbourg Court’, Professor Viljanen said.
‘The idea of the constitutional amendment is not to provide unrestricted mandate’, Professor Viljanen argued during his talk.
‘Rather, it is to seek a solution to questions regarding surveillance that are in accordance with European standards. This doctrinal link sets out certain detailed requirements that should be taken into account while preparing ordinary legislation regarding the surveillance’.
‘The Strasbourg Court’, Professor Viljanen said in closing, ‘acknowledges efforts to follow the established case law by stating that there needs to be “strong reasons” to substitute views of domestic authorities with its own views’.
The international scope of the conference was reflected in the breadth of participants, with scholars in attendance from Peru, Russia, Italy, Poland, Brazil and other countries.
University of Helsinki
