CLD Newsletter #2

September 2022

China, Law and Development: Studying the Role of Law in China's Global Development
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Welcome
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In our penultimate year of the “China, Law and Development” (CLD) project, an interdisciplinary project that examines China’s evolving approach to international law and the legal and regulatory orders of host states, the CLD research team has been continuing fieldwork, data collection and analysis, and publications. We have a number of collaborative writings under way, including two special issues featuring work by the CLD research team and other experts, and also teaching material in the form of a first-ever casebook on Chinese outbound investment with case studies based on primary source material that can be used for teaching purposes in law schools, business schools, and policy schools. Looking ahead, in 2023, we are hosting two CLD workshops, one in Asia and the other in the U.S., with legal scholars from around the world. Also, an offshoot of the CLD project, the Inter-Asian Law workshop, with leading Asianists from the region and beyond, will convene at the end of 2022 to inaugurate a new study of comparative Asian law. We look forward to engaging with these scholarly communities and with you, and, in the meantime, hope you enjoy some of our most recent collective works.

Matthew S. Erie, J.D., PhD
Principal Investigator, "China, Law and Development"
Associate Professor, Member of Law Faculty
University of Oxford
September 2022

Recent and Forthcoming Publications
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Matthew S. Erie, The Soft Power of Chinese Law, Colum. J. Transn'l L. (forthcoming). Available on SSRN here.

Matthew S. Erie & Jingjing Zhang, A Comparison of Inbound and Outbound Investment Regulatory Regimes in China: Focus on Environmental Protection, in 'China and the WTO: 20 Years On' (Henry Gao, Damian Ross, & Ka Zeng, eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Available on SSRN here.

Matthew S. Erie, China and Islamic Finance: Past, Present, and Future. Transnat'l Disp. Mgmt. Special issue on “Islamic Finance and Dispute Resolution” (forthcoming). Available here.

Matthew S. Erie, The Problem of Method in the Study of Transnational Dispute Resolution, Comp. & Transn'l Disp. Resol. (Shahla Ali, ed., forthcoming). Available on SSRN here.

Matthew S. Erie, The Normative Anthropologist, 73 Ala. L. Rev. 803 (2022). Available here.

Kai-Shen Huang, Internationalization as a Leap of Faith: Arbitration Reforms in China and the Challenges of Implementation, Asian J. Law & Soc'y, 1-31 (2022). Available here.

CLD Research Briefs
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Research Briefs are written by CLD Research Associates and other members of the research team and provide snapshots of either preliminary or on-going research projects conducted on CLD-related issues. Opinions expressed therein represent the personal views of the authors. All CLD Research Briefs are available here.

May 2022:

Current Developments in the Area of Recognition and Enforcement of Court Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters between China and Other States, Monika Prusinowska, University of Barcelona. Available here.
Linglong and the Case of 750 Workers from Vietnam in Serbia, Aleksandar Matković, Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade. Available here.
China-Nigeria Oil-for-Infrastructure Deal: Addressing Opacity and Exclusion in the Award of Oil Drilling Rights, Ngozi S. Nwoko, University of Victoria. Available here.
National Champions as ‘Learning Institutions’: Corporate Social Responsibility norm acquisition by Chinese state-owned enterprises during the Belt and Road Initiative, Yuan Wang, Columbia University. Available here.
The Diplomatic and Legal Arrangements under which China Cooperates with European Trade Partners on BRI Deals and Financing, Joseph Cash, China-Britain Business Council (guest contributor). Available here.

October 2021:

Labour Law Compliance among Chinese Enterprises in Ethiopia - Miriam Driessen, University of Oxford. Available here.
Chinese Cotton Diplomacy in Tajikistan: Greasing the Ties by Reviving the Cotton Economy - Irna Hofman, University of Oxford. Available here.
Vaccine Equity: Mapping the Challenges - Kai-Shen Huang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Available here.
Legal Development Along the Belt and Road: How Extra-Legal Institutions Shape Foreign Investment and Development Prospects in Cambodia - Molly Bodurtha, Columbia Law School & Sokphea Young, University College London. Available here.
Unravelling the Role of Local Lawyers and Law Firms in Chinese Investments in Brazil - Marco André Germanò, University of São Paulo & Peking University. Available here.
The Impact of Regime Changes and Culture on Foreign Investment: The Case of Chinese Investors in the Goldmines of Kyrgyzstan - Nuraiym Syrgak kyzy, Central Asia Research Institute, Kyrgyzstan. Available here.
City of London Law Firms Advising China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A Study of Six Years of Engagement - Michael Yip, Peking University. Available here.
Chinese Disguised Investment in Vietnam - Ha Hai Do, University of Oxford. Available here.
Sustainable Finance and Green BRI Practice in Africa and South Asia: A Response to the Changing International Political Order - Chi Zhang, University of Glasgow (guest contributor). Available here.

Book Reviews, Op-eds, and Blogs
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Matthew S. Erie, Mapping the Cosmopolitan Legal Imaginary: Recent Chinese Scholarship on Dispute Resolution, XX Am. J. Comp. L. 1-12 (2022). Available here.

Matthew S. Erie, Is There a Chinese “Code of Capital”? Law & Soc. Inquiry, 47(2) (2022). Available here.

Irna Hofman, Just Working for Wood: Life inside Tajikistan’s Silk Industry, OpenDemocracy, 11 August 2022. Available here.

Irna Hofman, In the Interstices of Patriarchal Order: Spaces of Female Agency in Chinese–Tajik Labor Encounters, Made in China Journal, 6(2) (2021). Available here.

Matthew S. Erie, A Brief History of Pakistan–China Legal Relations, Made in China Journal, 6(2) (2021). Available here.

Policy Relevant Writings
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GBCC Report, China and Global Legal Norms, June 2022. Available here.

The GBCC is a public body under the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that promotes legal and judicial dialogue between China and the UK. Professor Erie was commissioned to author a report to understand how China is shaping global legal norms, with a particular focus on international economic law and private international law, and, given China’s growing footprint in global governance, how UK stakeholders can best engage with Chinese counterparts on matters pertaining to the UK’s interests.

A collaboration between three projects - ROADWORK: An Anthropology of Infrastructure at China’s Inner Asian Borders (University of Fribourg); Environing Infrastructure: Communities, Ecologies, and China’s “Green” Development in Contemporary Southeast Asia (LMU Munich); China Made: Asian Infrastructures and the ‘China Model’ of Development (University of Colorado) - and twenty-two scholars with long-term experience of first-hand research in China and its neighboring countries produced two BRI factsheets, August 2022:

Demystifing the Belt and Road Initiative. Available here.
China’s Global Development Model: Looking Beyond the Belt and Road Initiative. Available here.

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