Chinese Law Prof Blog

Teng Biao in the Financial Times

Here's a mini-profile of Teng Biao (腾彪) in the July 23rd issue of the Financial Times. Check out in particular the embedded video in which Teng talks about his work. I have met Teng on several occasions; this soft-spoken man is truly admirable. I would be proud to have half his courage.

When people like Teng stick their necks out, what values are they sticking them out for? This, I guess, is my disagreement with those who insist that it's Eurocentric or narrow-minded or whatever to support the standard menu of human rights in China, and that "the Chinese" must find their own way, perhaps on some kind of Confucian foundation. When you get right down to it, the proponents of various schemes of managed democracy, popular consultation, corporatist assemblies, etc. do not risk their livelihoods and their personal safety to promote their views in China; people like Teng Biao do. He is as Chinese as all the others, and what he does is a legitimate part of China finding its own way. If he is willing to take these risks to support the standard menu of human rights, should the rest of us be too paralyzed by the fear of being accused of unthinkingly subscribing to the assumptions of some hegemonic ideology to support him? (Rhetorical question!)

Three PRC lawyers comment on amended Lawyers Law

The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group has posted translations of commentaries by three PRC lawyers (Teng Biao, Li Heping, and Zhang Jiankang) on China's amended Lawyers Law. The document is here [PDF on this site | HTML on CHRLC site].

CECC translation of indictment of Hu Jia

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has published a translation of the indictment of Hu Jia; it's available here.

Revised document on Chinese LLM degrees for foreigners

Last week I posted here on Chinese LLM degrees for foreigners. As some useful comments have come in response to that, I'm posting a revised document; please use this one (Version 2) instead.

Enforcing environmental law in China

Here's a piece from the May 1st edition of The Economist about the problems of enforcing environmental law in China, and the fate suffered by whistle-blowers such as Wu Lihong, who is now languishing in prison for his efforts while his wife is the target of continued surveillance and harassment. I'm not an expert in environmental law or policy, but I cannot offhand think of any societies that managed to tackle the pollution caused by industrialization solely through top-down government efforts of the kind with which the Chinese state is comfortable. Of course, state law has played an important role, but citizen involvement, whether as a spur to government action or as plaintiffs in environmental lawsuits, appears indispensable. Government officials cannot monitor every pipe end in the country.

Chinese LLM degrees for foreigners

Some time ago, a discussion on the Chinalaw list about LLMs for foreigners (typically English-language) offered by Chinese institutions prompted me to ask for those with views on the subject to write to me so I could assemble a document that would answer questions that often came up.

Here's the result; hope it's useful to all.

MAY 26 UPDATE: I have posted a revised document here.

Hu Jia's lawyer says government illegally blocks appeal

Hu Jia's lawyer Li Fangping states that following his conviction, Hu Jia was held incommunicado and barred from consulting with his legal team to discuss an appeal. The period for lodging an appeal has now expired. Here's the AFP report.

Here's my previous post on this subject.

Dui Hua Foundation on Hu Jia's conviction

Here are some observations on the conviction of Hu Jia from the Dui Hua Foundation. The article compares the time taken to process Hu's case and finds it extraordinarily fast, compared with other similar cases in Dui Hua's database. It concludes that one "cannot help but suspect that the relevant authorities were reluctant to announce a judgment against Hu too close to the Olympics (where it might cause image problems), preferring instead to send an early warning to other activists not to make trouble." It also suggests that based on what we know of sentences in similar cases, there is no reason to consider Hu's sentence particularly lenient, contrary to Xinhua's claim.

Teng Biao and other lawyers offer assistance to Tibetan detainees

Fresh from his kidnapping by the police, Teng Biao has now joined an effort to offer legal assistance to Tibetans detained in the recent unrest. Here is the open letter in which he and several other signatories offer assistance. Teng is a brave man; the rabid nationalists - and there sure seem to be a lot of them - may be less polite to him than the police were.

My very last post on Tang Wei

There is now a petition circulating in China addressed to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao asking that the government withdraw the ban. Here's an English translation; here's the Chinese original. Interestingly, some of the language tracks that of the report in the Procuratorial Daily that I translated here a few days ago.

"Lust, Caution" star Tang Wei banned in China

The China Digital Times reports that in a telephone memo, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has banned media in China under its authority from having anything to do with Tang Wei, the actress who starred in "Lust, Caution." The memo reportedly says, among other things, ""All television programs, including news, features, entertainment, advertising and live broadcasts, must not cover Tang Wei or stir up issues related to her from now on." The memo, reportedly issued on March 6th, seems to coincide with the issuance by SARFT on March 3rd of a notice restating its policy on censorship.

The banning was reported on March 8th by the Hollywood Reporter, and although SARFT clearly doesn't want to talk about it - what doesn't exist can't be effectively challenged, after all - a SARFT official acknowledged the action in remarks at the meeting the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress currently taking place in Beijing.

This action raises all kinds of interesting questions, the primary one of which of course is whether she would have standing to sue SARFT under the Administrative Litigation Law (or indeed, any other law) to make it justify the legality of its action - assuming unrealistically that any court would take the case. After all, the order isn't directed at her; plenty of reason for a nervous court to decline to take the case.
 

Teng Biao released

Those following the Teng Biao case will be pleased (well, most of them will be pleased) to know he has been released.

There has been some discussion on the Chinalaw listserve about the legality of his detention. Without rehashing the discussion - the archives are available to anyone who joins the list, and joining is free - I thought it might be useful to highlight the two issues that emerged.

First, of course, is the main issue of whether his detention and the manner in which it was effected are lawful under Chinese law. Under Chinese law, restrictions on personal freedom may be justified only pursuant to legislation passed by the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee. Thus, it is acknowledged by just about everyone that the "shuanggui" (double designation) system of detention by Party disciplinary organs is illegal, even though it continues to operate unembarrassed by this problem.

In Teng's case, the relevant statute would seem to be the Criminal Procedure Law. But was he detained as part of a bona fide criminal investigation? And does the CPL justify detentions that are not part of a bona fide criminal investigation? I don't ask these questions rhetorically, but I think the answer to both is no.

The second issue is whether observers should spend energy trying to figure out if a lawful basis for the detention might have existed, and what conclusions, if any, should be drawn from the failure of the Chinese government to provide information or a justification. As one contributor pointed out, while it's legitimate for the detainee to argue that the detention is illegal unless the state shows legal grounds, the position of the outside observer is different. The detainee is trying to obtain his freedom, while the observer is (or should be) trying to understand the Chinese legal system; the notion that the government should pay a cost for its silence is good advocacy but poor scholarship.

In any case, an interesting discussion.

Rights lawyer Teng Biao kidnapped; rights lawyer Li Heping rammed

Since the normal procedures for arrest do not seem to have been followed, "kidnapping" seems about the best term to describe the seizure of attorney Teng Biao (滕彪) by unknown persons in a black car without license plates. Needless to say, the probability that these are agents of the state is very high. Here's the news story from The Guardian; a statement by the Hong Kong organization China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group is here.

The statement also mentions a contemporaneous incident in which the car of attorney Li Heping (李和平), who was recently kidnapped and severely beaten by unknown assailants (again, very probably state agents), was rammed by a police vehicle as he was taking his young son to school.

Here's a press release from Human Rights in China with many useful links.

Wallace Stephen Johnson (1932-2007)

I am sorry to report the death of Prof. Wallace Johnson of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of the University of Kansas. Among students of Chinese law, Prof. Johnson is best known for his translation of the Tang Code: first the General Principles (Princeton University Press, 1979) and later the Specific Articles (Princeton University Press, 1997). Here are two obituaries: Lawrence Journal World & News | University of Kansas news release.

We also have Prof. Johnson to thank for the online and Word versions of the Tang, Ming, and Qing codes, available here.

Foreign law firms in China

Every so often people ask me for a list of foreign law firms in China. Here's one I recently came across, thanks to a posting by David Atnip on the Chinalaw list.

SPC Vice President Wan Exiang address to OAS: text and video

On Sept. 25, Supreme People's Court Vice President Wan Exiang (万鄂湘) addressed the OAS in Washington, DC. Here's an outline and a video of his speech.

Yale Law School's China Law Center snags $10M Hewlett Foundation grant

The title of this post says it all; congratulations to China Law Center director Paul Gewirtz. For more information, see the press release.

City University of Hong Kong School of Law seeks dean

I recently received the following announcement:

Search for Dean of School of Law

City University of Hong Kong is searching for a suitable candidate to serve as Dean of School of Law.  The Dean will play a pivotal role in the management of resources and in academic development and quality control.  The University has set up a Search Group to search for suitable candidates for the position.  The University welcomes applications and nominations.

You are cordially invited to make nominations or pass on the information to suitable candidates.  Please refer to the enclosed circular [Word | PDF] for details.  Candidates are requested to provide to the Search Group a current curriculum vitae and a statement on suitability and vision to serve as Dean.  The screening process will start by 16 April 2007.

For nominations and enquiries, please contact Ms. Angela KWOK, Secretary to the Search Group (Tel: 852-2788 9248 or email deanslw@cityu.edu.hk).

NYT on Li Jinsong and Li Jianqiang

Today's New York Times carries a very interesting profile of two human rights lawyers, Li Jinsong and Li Jianqiang, and their differing views on China's legal and political system in general and litigation strategy in particular. Here are some bios:

• Li Jinsong (李劲松): Chinese | English
• Li Jianqiang (李建强): Chinese | English

Human rights group issues report on Cheng Guangcheng case

The organization Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders has released a report analyzing the Chen Guangcheng case (my latest relevant blog post is here).  The report is available on line here [Part 1 | Part 2] and may be downloaded in PDF format from the Chinese Law Blog web site here.

Chinese law school rankings

There has been a bit of discussion over at the Chinalaw list about rankings for Chinese law faculties; here is the result. I have edited the contributions a bit. ADDED FEB. 13: Let me stress that we don't know the methodology behind these rankings; in particular, so far as I know, the universities don't supply data to the rankers. For a critique of the rankings (in Chinese), see here.

From Wei Luo:

The most popular ranking of Chinese higher education institutes has been done by 武书连 《中国大学评价》 (here). He and his associate also rank Chinese law schools here. Unfortunately, the details of his ranking methodology is not described at his website.

Zhu Suli conducted a project to rank the most cited Chinese legal scholars a few years ago. One of his articles on this topic (从法学著述引证看中国法学--中国法学研究现状考察之二) can be found here.

John Graham has kindly translated the university and law school rankings at the above links. Thanks also to Xin Dai for pointing out that under the Department of Education's classification system, "law" here is an umbrella term encompassing the majors of law, Marxism, sociology, politics, and public security.

Universities
1. Tsinghua University
2. Beijing University
3. Zhejiang University
4. Shanghai Jiaotong University
5. Nanjing University
6. Fudan University (Shanghai)
7. Huazhong University of Science and Technology
8. Wuhan University
9. Jilin University (Changchun)
10. Xi'an Jiaotong University

Law Schools
1. A++ Beijing University
2. A++ People's University (Beijing)
3. A++ Wuhan University
4. A++ Tsinghua University
5. A+ China University of Political Science and Law (Zhengfa Daxue)
6. A+ Jilin University
7. A+ Fudan University
8. A+ Southwest University of Political Science and Law (Xinan Zhengfa Daxue)(Chongqing)
9. A Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (Zhongnan Caijing Zhengfa Daxue)
10. A Zhejiang University
11. A Xiamen University
12. A Zhongshan University
13. A East China University of Politics and Law
14. A Nanjing University
15. A Nankai University (Tianjin)
16. A Huazhong Normal University
17. A Suzhou University
18. A East China Normal University
19. A Shandong University

HIV/AIDS activist doctor Gao Yaojie under "house arrest"

The VOA reports that Dr. Gao Yaojie has been placed under "house arrest" by authorities in Henan, and thus prevented from traveling to the US to receive an award for supporting the rights of women in China. [VOA report | NYT profile of Gao Yaojie]. I use quotation marks around the word "house arrest" because I don't actually know of any legal basis for the actions taken here (and often in other cases as well). Typically, the police simply surround the residence of the person in question and refuse to let anyone in; the person under house arrest may be allowed out to go shopping or something like that, but accompanied by a police officer. Under Chinese law as I understand it, if people are suspected of criminal activity in China, they can be questioned inside or outside of a custodial setting. Once charged, they can continue in custody or can be allowed to await trial outside of custody. These procedures are all in the Criminal Procedure Law and associated documents. There is a procedure called "supervised residence," but this again is supposed to be pursuant to criminal charges and there's no indication that Gao has been charged with anything.

Thus, my tentative conclusion is that the measures adopted here and in similar cases (for example, the long house arrest of Zhao Ziyang) represent actions by authorities who simply do not care what the law may or may not demand or allow. The central government could if it wished pass regulations to allow for this type of thing (since this involves coercive measures, it should be at the NPC or NPC Standing Committee level), but to the best of my knowledge it has not. My guess is that spelling out the conditions under which this kind of house arrest would be allowed would be unsatisfactory: they would either be too narrow to be useful or so broad as to attract substantial criticism, not just outside China but inside it as well.

I think the best term for this kind of action might be "extralegal"; "unlawful", if I'm right about the lack of justifying legislation, is also accurate as far as it goes, but it fails to capture the notion that the legal system is simply irrelevant in the view of the authorities. And if that view can be made to stick, then we have to take it seriously in understanding how the system works.

My premise may of course be wrong; if readers do know of any legal basis for this kind of action, please explain in the comments.

Luo Gan calls for vigilance against enemy forces using courts to Westernize China

The Party's top official in charge of legal matters and Politburo Standing Committee member Luo Gan (罗干) has issued a call for legal departments to be on guard against enemy forces seeking to use the legal system to Westernize and divide the country. The speech was published in the Party journal Qiu Shi (Seeking Truth); it's called "The Political Responsibility of Political-Legal Organs in Constructing a Harmonious Society" (政法机关在构建和谐社会中的政治责任). Here's the speech as published; here's the New York Times article by Joe Kahn.

Volunteers wanted at China Regional Jessup Moot Court Competition, Shenzhen, Feb. 6-9

Thanks to Carol Kalinoski for this notice:

The Fifth China Regional Jessup Moot Court Competition will be held next week at Shenzhen University, School of Law, on February 6-9, 2007.

The Jessup 2007 problem focuses on the increasing role of intergovernmental organizatons (IGOs), such as the European Union, in international political and economic affairs.  Despite the growth of IGOs, the traditional state-centered role of international law relegates these entities to a subsidiary role.  For example, only "states" are permitted to appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ),.  Even though such IGOs may have rights under a treaty, they have no recourse to the ICJ.

In this year's Jessup moot court problem, a state seeks to join an IGO created by five other member states.  The controversies arise when the applicant state is thought by the IGO to have "failed" to comply with an condition of the written accession agreement.  Questions to be answered before the ICJ are whether the IGO violated international law by denying the applicant state membership in the IGO?  Also to be considered are questions of treaty law, privileges and immunities of diplomatic missions, diplomatic protection, and the law of expropriation.

There are expected to be 26 Chinese law schools participating in this year's moot, with the two winning teams advancing to the International Rounds scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C., at the end of March.

The 2007 Jessup compromis and other information concerning the Moot can be found at www.ilsa.org/Jessup.

Anyone interested in participating in the moot next week in Shenzhen or support the Moot in any way is encouraged to contact the Jessup administrator for China, Prof. Wenqi Zhu at Renmin University, who can be reached at wenqizhu@hotmail.com.

Tsinghua professor calls for legalization of prostitution

I thought that headline would get your attention. In this case it's a Tsinghua professor who can speak a little more freely than perhaps others can; he's my countryman Daniel Bell, now in Tsinghua's philosophy department. One very interesting thing his article reveals is that in 1992, a delegation of PRC officials went on a tour of state-sanctioned brothels in Singapore. This might not strike anyone as unusual, but I mean they went officially.

I have a previous post on this subject here.

[Jan. 30th addendum]

Incidentally, here's a proposal circulated within China last summer to have the NPC Standing Committee review China's laws against pornography and prostitution for unconstitutionality. Maybe not the most convincing legal argument, but this is really just a policy proposal in disguise. Thanks to Keith Hand for the reference.

U Penn's Chinese Law and Policy Review

This is an unsolicited announcement about the Chinese Law and Policy Review, an online journal run by students at the Univ. of Pennsylvania Law School. Its unique claim to fame (of course it no doubt has others) is that it publishes all its articles in both Chinese and English; original submissions may be in either language. For more information, check out its Web site.

Wang Tiancheng loses appeal in plagiarism suit against Zhou Yezhong

I have previously blogged about Wang Tiancheng's suit against law professor Zhou Yezhong for plagiarism. Wang lost in the first trial, and he has now lost on appeal as well. Here's a commentary on the verdict by his lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, as well as the text of the judgment on appeal.

The return of Gong Xiantian

I last blogged here about Beijing University law professor Gong Xiantian and his open letter attacking the draft Property Law. He has returned to the scene with another open letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress denouncing the current draft. I haven't yet had time to read it; comments from those who have are welcome.

The latest draft of the Property Law that I have is from July 2005; the text of the letter indicates that Gong is basing his comments on reports of the draft published on Oct. 30, 2006 in the People's Daily. Here are some articles from that date available from the People's Daily's Web site that comment on the most recent draft and give some indication as to its content: here | here | here | here | here | here | here | here | here | here | here | here. You can see more by going to this page, entering the characters 物权法, and adding an appropriate date restriction.

Gong also has a long article denouncing the Property Law here. Both his article and the open letter are posted on the Mao Flag site, which is dedicated to the restoration of  Mao Zedong Thought to Chinese politics. (One commenter to Gong's piece thinks it's about time for another Cultural Revolution.)

Chen Guangcheng retrial under way

I last posted here about the farcical trial of Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal activist from Shandong. The verdict in his first trial was overturned and the case was remanded back to the original court. His second trial is now under way. Although three former prosecution witnesses promised to testify for the defense this time, saying that their former testimony had been elicited by police torture, none showed up; two had simply disappeared, while a third was kidnapped on the eve of trial by unidentified men literally in front of the eyes of two of Chen's lawyers. The Washington Post story is here.

Northwest Institute of Politics and Law changes name

The venerable Northwest Institute of Politics and Law (Xibei Zhengfa Xueyuan 西北政法学院) has just received permission from the Ministry of Education to change its name to the Northwest University of Politics and Law (Xibei Zhengfa Daxue 西北政法大学). The MOE notice, addressed to the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, adds that the provincial government is to be responsible for all "expenses needed for development" of the university.

Washington Post op-ed by wife of Chen Guangcheng

Last August I posted here on the sentencing of Chen Guangcheng after a trial for which the usual term "farcical" is barely adequate. His wife, Yuan Weijin, recently published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post entitled "China vs. My Husband." Click here to read.

NYT article on Chen Guangcheng

Last September I posted here about the Shandong "barefoot lawyer" Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚). The July 20th issue of the New York Times carries a good article by Joseph Kahn here on his latest travails. For a rather ugly commentary that accuses him of being a traitor in the pay of foreigners, see here.

Pu Zhiqiang joins blogosphere

Attorney Pu Zhiqiang, previously profiled here, has now started a blog. Click here for a look.

Latest issue of China Labour Bulletin E-Bulletin on work of Gao Zhisheng

The latest E-Bulletin of the China Labour Bulletin (No. 31, 2006-04-13), discussing the work of prominent lawyer Gao Zhisheng in defending workers' rights, is available here. The lead essay draws attention among other things to the apparently increasing collaboration between government and criminal forces in suppressing and intimidating opposition.

English-language LLM programs in China

Peking University's Law School has just started an English-language LL.M. program in Chinese law. Applications for the 2006-07 academic year are due on May 29th. For more information, click here.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the second English-language LL.M. in Chinese law offered directly by a Chinese law school. The first is at Tsinghua University's Faculty of Law; for more information, click here.

Qiu He and the rule of man/rule of law controversy

The career of Qiu He (仇和), recently promoted to the rank of vice governor of Jiangsu Province, has occasioned quite a bit of controversy. The essence of the issue is that Qiu has apparently run roughshod over what might be called the legal rights of those he has governed in previous positions, but has ultimately delivered impressive economic results and introduced political reforms. Those who support him say, in the words of one blogger, "Can't one use rule by men to promote rule of law? Can't one use non-democratic means to promote democracy?" In the words of another supporter, given that there are no effective political structures, the only way to create healthy institutions is through rule by men.

Others such as Cai Dingjian of the Chinese University of Politics and Law reject these arguments: "The tragedy of strongman politics is that good officials always want to do everything themselves, to change the fate of the people, and to become the savior of the people, but they don't let people grasp their own fates." Cai argues that the test of a good official is the degree to which they contribute to the creation of institutions. Otherwise, even a good official, when he leaves his post, leaves nothing behind.

For a full discussion of the Qiu He phenomenon, to which is owed the above summary and quotations, see Joseph Fewsmith, "Promotion of Qiu He Raises Questions About Direction of Reform," China Leadership Monitor, No. 17, Winter 2006.

China's draft Property Law: reaction and counter-reaction

The adoption of China's Property Law (物权法) has proven exceptionally difficult because of the minefield of ideological problems involved. It is not on the legislative agenda of this month's NPC Standing Committee session because of an open letter written last August by Prof. Gong Xiantian (巩献田) of the Beijing Univ. Faculty of Law. (According to his Beijing Univ. Web site, Prof. Gong has a Ph.D. from the Univ. of Sarajevo and specializes in jurisprudence, Marxist legal theory, general theory of law, politics, and ethics.)

Professor Gong published his letter - "A Draft 'Property Law' that Violates the Constitution and Departs from the Basic Principles of Socialism" - last August, but a full account of what went on has only recently become available in an article published in Southern Weekend (南方周末).

Needless to say, those who had worked for years on the draft were furious that their efforts had been derailed at the last minute. The Civil Law Research Board of the China Law Association held a meeting on the Property Law late last month at Renmin Univ. in Beijing, which seems by and large to have been devoted to denouncing Prof. Gong's views. (See the end of this post for a link to a news report as well as a translation.)

Although Prof. Gong has been criticized for singlehandedly throwing a spanner into the works, open letters from professors these days are so common you wonder they have any time left for teaching and research; this letter would have gone nowhere were there not powerful political figures who could use it. According to the Southern Weekend report, half a month after he published his letter, Prof. Gong was invited to have a personal meeting with Hu Kangsheng (胡康生) and Wang Shengming (王胜明), chairman and vice chairman respectively of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee. This was apparently the first time an academic had ever been invited alone to give his views to Commission members.

For a report in Chinese on the meeting where Prof. Gong's views were criticized by a roster of big names in the property law field, click here. The following translation is courtesy of David Kelly of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

Jiang Ping: Formulating the Real Property Law must not go backwards

China Industrial and Commercial Times, Feb. 27, 2006

"If a Real Property Law cannot manifest the spirit of science, and anyone's opinion can be written into it, what kind of Real Property Law is it? A Real Property Law that goes backwards—I don't approve!" Thus declared Emeritus Professor Jiang Ping of the Chinese University of Politics and Law when appraising the Real Property Law.

The process of enacting the Real Property Law, which was set for consideration at the NPC and CPPCC meetings this year, had to come to a halt because a professor at a famous univ­ersity published an open letter claiming that the draft of the Law violated the constitution. The Civil Law Research Board of the China Law Association therefore held a seminar on "The Real Pro­perty Law and the theory of building a harmonious society" at Chinese Ren­min University on 25 February. The majority of scholars attending argued that the Real Property Law legislative process should not be disturbed, and it should as soon as possible considered and promulgated.

Jiang Ping's speech was right on the money. Not only did he directly name the professor who published the open letter, he also evinced concerns about some issues in the present legislative procedure. He believes that the drafting of the Real Property Law was pulled in opposite directions by two forces, leading to revisions of the relevant articles. He pointed out that some revisions were progressive, some were going backwards. He strongly recommended that a Real Property Law be formulated that embodies the spirit of the constitution, of the reform and open policy and of science. If what finally appeared was a hodgepodge, a backward-facing Real Property Law, he would oppose it. Such a law might as well not be formulated.

Professor Wang Weiguo, Vice-chairman of the Civil Law Research Board of the China Law Society, stated that a view of the professor who published the open letter violated legal logic. The question the open letter proposed is: Are a beggar's stick and a millionaire's mansion to be protected equally? Wang Weiguo replied that the overwhelming majority of people have at least some property; even if someone begs, there are still principles. Begging someone for food indeed shows respect for the property rights of another: when a "gentleman acts charitably," the one who is begged from exercises his right of disposal, hand­ing a part of his property over. This is in fact an order without which even beggars could not exist. As for the millionaire, if his property was illegally gained, he is not protected by the Real Property Law. But telling if his property was legally obtained or not is not a question to be solved by civil law or the Real Property Law. Not all issues are to be dumped on it.

Renmin University's Professor Yang Lixin summarized six points of consensus: (1)  the Real Property Law is an important law that safeguards the basic socialist economic system, in politics, playing a vital role in economic life; (2) the Real Property Law is an important law that confirms and consolidates fruits of the victory of the reform and open policy, and impels its thorough development; (3) the Real Property Law is a fundamental law that coordinates property relations in socialist society: it safeguards people's basic rights, and is an important safeguard of building a socialist harmonious society (4) the Real Property Law is an import­ant law that encourages the broad masses to create wealth, and strengthens China's compreh­ensive national strength; (5) the Real Property Law is an important constituent of China's civil code, with decisive significance regarding the improvement of the legal framework of the socialist market economy; (6) the Real Property Law draft is the crystallization of a comprehensive exchange of opinion between jurists and the nation as a whole, condensing results of the research of several generations of Chinese jurists.

Oops, they did it again, say Yahoo critics

Yahoo can't seem to stay out of the news. They have been accused by the writer Liu Xiaobo of having provided evidence to the Chinese police in 2003 leading to the conviction and sentencing to eight years' imprisonment of Li Zhi, a Chinese internet user. Once again, the information seems to have come from Yahoo's Hong Kong-incorporated entity. For a full report in English from the China Digital Times, with links to Chinese sources, click here.

English translation of Supreme People's Court's Second Five-Year Reform Plan

I previously posted here about the SPC's second five-year reform plan. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has now published an English translation of all 50 points (the introductory and concluding sections were not translated), available here.

Gao Zhisheng in the news again

I've previously posted about attorney Gao Zhisheng; see this post for links. Now he's in the news again. First, there's an Amnesty International report about an apparent attempt on his life, or at least an attempt to put a scare into him. Second, there is a profile of him in The Observer.

Attached is an email statement dated Jan. 19, 2006 attributed to Gao - I cannot vouch for its authenticity - that protests against the continued surveillance of him and his family: Download statement.pdf.

Pu Zhiqiang on "Freezing Point" closure

Here's an essay by Pu Zhiqiang, previously profiled here, on the recent closure of "Freezing Point" (冰点), the too-daring supplement to the China Youth News (中国青年报)：Download PZQ_on_Bingdian.pdf.

Another plagiarism scandal in the legal academy

He Weifang (贺卫方), previously profiled here, is in the spotlight again as he challenges Zhou Yezhong (周叶中), a professor on the law faculty of Wuhan University, to respond to allegations of plagiarism. (For a quick summary of the issue, here's a recent Reuters article in English.) Zhou is what might be called an establishment legal scholar; in 2002, he was invited to lecture Hu Jintao and the Politburo on constitutional law. Among many other positions, he is a deputy secretary of the Law Faculty's Party committee and a member of the Ministry of Education's Higher Education Legal Studies Curriculum Guidance Committee (高等学校法学学科教育指导委员会). In 2005, he was named one of China's ten outstanding young and middle-aged legal scholars (全国十大杰出中青年法学家) by the China Legal Studies Association (中国法学会).

The story broke in late November, 2005, when Wang Tiancheng (王天成), a former Beijing University law department lecturer (1989-1992) and now a businessman, accused Zhou of copying large portions of his own work in "A Constitutionalist Interpretation of Republicanism" (共和主义的宪政解读), which Zhou published (with co-author Dai Jitao (戴激涛), his doctoral student) in September 2005 with the People's Press (人民出版社). The case is particularly sensitive because of Zhou's political standing, and apparently media discussion of the case has been prohibited by the Communist Party's Propaganda Department.

Zhou has apparently refused to say very much about the case so far except to deny in general terms that he did anything wrong, but is reported to have suggested that all references to Wang were removed by or at the instance of the publisher because Wang was out of favor with the authorities, having spent five years in prison in the 1990s for attempting to organize an opposition party.

In his critique of Zhou, posted on the Academic Criticism website (学术批评网), Prof. He expresses his dissatisfaction with this explanation, finding that other authors without political problems were copied without attribution as well, and that the removal of quotation marks along with the citations suggests an intention to conceal the copying. It is also reported that the People's Press has declined Wang's request to issue a written statement backing up Zhou's claim.

In a tongue-in-cheek defense of Prof. Zhou (at least this is how I read it), an anonymous author suggests that the blame probably lies with Dai, his co-author and student. That professors take credit for a student's work is, the author writes, an open secret in China, and the practice works to the benefit of both: the student, an unknown, can publish at a major publishing house, and the professor can add another publication to his CV without having to actually write anything. But, the author writes, in these cases the student has a duty not to embarrass the professor by exposing him to criticism through such sins as plagiarism. Thus, the author writes, Prof. He is too hard on Prof. Zhou by expecting him actually to read carefully and check for plagiarism everything that is published under his name.

Troubles never come singly; just a few days after Wang's attack, an anonymous author on the web charged that Zhou and another Wuhan University Law Faculty member, Jiang Guohua (江国华), had published, each under solely his own name, what was essentially the same article under different titles in different journals. Apparently neither Wuhan University nor the two professors have made any comment on this matter to date.

For a good report in Chinese with more detail on the points covered above, click here.

Indiana University Law School co-sponsors China’s first national mock criminal trial competition

Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis and Renmin University of China School of Law in Beijing recently co-sponsored what may be the first mock criminal trial advocacy competition in China. Students from law schools throughout mainland China participated in the two-day event, which was held in Beijing in December. For the full story from IU's website, click here.

Peking U. Law Faculty establishes Soft Law Center

On Dec. 8, 2005, Peking University's Faculty of Law formally launched its Center for Research in Soft Law (软法研究中心), with Luo Haocai (罗豪才) (Peking Univ. Faculty of Law) as honorary director, Jiang Ming'an (姜明安) (Peking Univ. Faculty of Law) as director, and Song Gongde (宋功德) (National Institute of Administration) as executive director.

The text of Luo's speech at the founding ceremony, where he lays out some of the problems in the field and the goals of the center, can be found here.