CLD newsletter #4

December 5, 2023

 

China, Law and Development: Studying the Role of Law in China's Global Development
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Welcome
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This has been a busy year for the CLD project, featuring several major events aimed at sharing our findings to date, building networks across the world, and creating platforms for engagement of stakeholders from different nations, disciplines, and ideological positions.

We convened two international workshops, one in Asia and the other in the Americas, to foster conversations around China’s evolving normative footprint in these regions. Collectively, the workshops addressed such issues as security, international economic law, development finance, technology and digital development, dispute resolution, business and human rights, and the U.S.-China rivalry in the Global South. We are in the process of producing two publications from the workshops, including a volume U.S., China, and the Global South: Law & Political Economy (eds. Matthew S. Erie, Jaclyn Neo, and Jacques deLisle), comprising the state of the field on these issues and featuring diverse voices often drowned out in the U.S-China contest, and we are in talks to produce a special issue in the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Asian Law Review.

As part of the CLD’s goal to promote new fields of inquiry, we are thrilled to announce that our edited volume Inter-Asian Law (eds. Matthew S. Erie and Ching-Fu Lin) has been accepted for publication by the American Society of Comparative Law’s Studies in Comparative Law series at Cambridge University Press. A result of a workshop held at National Tsing Hua University in December 2022, and building on recent scholarship at the intersection of comparative law, international law, and Asian studies, Inter-Asian Law is the first collaborative effort to demonstrate how Asian law and not Anglo-American common law or European civil law, may foster legal innovation and development. In particular, Inter-Asian Law shows how Asian law operates through legal diffusion, legal transplantation, and regulatory convergence across Asian jurisdictions, albeit not without constraints. The volume features work by scholars from the Asian region and around the world and offers an analytical framework for future research.

In this newsletter, please find our most recent publications and forthcoming works. As we are nearing the end of our grant period, we will continue to publish our findings in 2024 and beyond. Building on the international contacts we have made over the past five years, we are also in the midst of securing institutional support to grow the next stage of CLD. We look forward to continuing to deepen the analysis of China’s role in global development. 

Matthew S. Erie, J.D., PhD
Principal Investigator, "China, Law and Development"
Associate Professor, Member of Law Faculty
University of Oxford
December 2023

 

Recent Publications
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Matthew S. Erie, Property as National Security, Wisconsin Law Review (forthcoming). Available on SSRN here. 

Matthew S. Erie, Chinese Law and Development: Implications for US Rule of Law Programs in Lucas Myers (ed), '2022-23 Wilson China Fellowship: Understanding China Amid Change and Competition' (Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, 2023). Available here.

Matthew S. Erie, Foreign Policy Implications for China’s “Foreign-Related ‘Rule of Law’ Orbis, 67(4) (2023) 565-578. Available here.

Matthew S. Erie and Jingjing Zhang, A Comparison of Inbound and Outbound Investment Regulatory Regimes in China: Focus on Environmental Protection in Henry Gao, Damian Ross & Ka Zeng (eds),'China and the WTO: A Twenty-Year Assessment' (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Available here.

Matthew S. Erie and Ching-Fu Lin, The Emergence of Inter-Asian Law: Normative Origins, Trajectories and Contours (Oxford Business Law Blog, December 4, 2023). Available here.

 

Recent Events
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1. Workshop: Chinese Law and Development: Views from Asia and Beyond.
May 29 & 30, 2023.

This first workshop was held at the National University of Singapore Law Faculty early in 2023 and was co-hosted by Professor Jaclyn Neo, Director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies. It featured scholars from the PRC, elsewhere in Asia, and from African states, and was perhaps the first of its kind to be held outside of the PRC.

 

2. Workshop: U.S., China and the Global South.
September 21 & 22, 2023.

The second workshop was held at the University of Pennsylvania in September and co-hosted by Professor Jacques deLisle, Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. it featured participants from North and South America, including legal scholars and social scientists.

 

3. Webinar: BRI in Crisis? The Future of the Belt and Road Initiative.
October 18, 2023.

Co-sponsored by the Walsh School of Foreign Service Asian Studies Program and the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University. Speakers: Matthew S. Erie, Xue Gong, Min Ye, and Evan Medeiros (moderator). YouTube video available here.
 

Research Outputs from CLD Research Associates
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To help build a broader network of scholars and practitioners working on legal and regulatory issues related to Chinese outbound capital, we are delighted to work with a number of invited CLD Research Associates. These RAs are based around the world and represent diverse professional and jurisdictional backgrounds. Recent outputs include:

  • Folasade Abiodun, China in Africa: Whose Interest? in Adebusuyi Isaac Adeniran (ed), 'African Development and Global Engagements' (Palgrave Macmillan 2023) 271-292. Available here.
  • Obert Bore, Mining Project Performance Report: Case of Sabi Star Lithium Project by Max Minds Investments in Buhera (Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, May 2023). A report on a lithium mining project by a Chinese company in Zimbabwe. Available here.
  • Mutuso Dhliwayo, Obert Bore, Josephine Chiname, and Farai Mutondoro, Commentary on the Mediation and Consultation Mechanism for the Mining Industry and Mineral Value Chain: Strengths, Weaknesses and Recommendations (Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, July 2023). On the Chinese grievance redress mechanism developed by the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters. Available here.
  • Aleksandar Matković, Linglong – China, EU & Serbia, Seen Through the Lens of a Single Factory (June 7, 2022). A lecture tackling Chinese investments in Serbia using Linglong, the first Chinese tire producer in Europe, as an example. Available on YouTube here.
  • Aleksandar Matković, Ideological Stances on Chinese Investments in Serbia 2018-2022 - Pilot Study (Research & Alternatives, October 7, 2022). A study of value-judgements regarding Chinese investments on a sample of over 2000 texts in a major Serbian oppositional daily. Available here.
  • Jieren Hu and Ying Wu, Source Governance of Social Disputes in China, 55(3) (2023) Critical Asian Studies 354-376. Available here. 
  • Ying Wu, To Portray Her Face: the Legal Discourse of Women’s Rights Protection in Post-1978 China and Its Limits in 'Post-colonial Perspectives of Human Rights: A Comparative Critical Analysis on Gender-based Violence in Asia (Routledge 2024, forthcoming).

 

In the Media
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Joe Cash, Planned Leaders Gather in China for Smaller, Greener Belt and Road Summit (Reuters, October 16, 2023). Available here.