10th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association (欧洲中国法研究协会); University of Cologne — 25–27 September 2015

I am delighted to post the program for the 10th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association (欧洲中国法研究协会): New Perspectives on the Development of Law in China.  

The Conference will be held at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Cologne. It will bring together scholars from Europe, the Americas and China. Since its founding in 2006, the European China Law Studies Association has become a major international venue for scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the study of Chinese law, from both comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. The annual conference is a leading international academic forum for the exchange of information and ideas on Chinese law, as well as a platform for the initiation of research collaboration. 

The Program follows. 

Programme

Participants have to register for the conference by 31 August 2015 through the participants’ area. More information on the conference venues can be found in the members’ area.

Friday, 25 September 2015

15.00–16.30 h — ECLS General Assembly Meeting

Institute of East Asian Studies, Room 3.07
Dürener Straße 56–60, 50931 Cologne
The meeting is for ECLS members only, membership application forms will be available for those who would like to join the ECLS
Please register your participation in the members’ area

18.00–22.00 h — Reception at Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
Cäcilienstraße 29–33, 50667 Cologne
Please register your participation in the members’ area

Saturday, 26 September 2015

09.00–09.30 h — Welcome Remarks

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne

• Prof Stephan Schröder, Associate Dean of the Arts and Humanities Faculty, University of Cologne
• Dr Knut Benjamin Pissler, President, European China Law Studies Association (ECLS)
• Prof Uwe Blaurock, President, German-Chinese Jurists’ Association (DCJV)
• Prof Björn Ahl, Convenor of the 10th Annual ECLS Conference

09.30–10.30 h — Keynote Speeches

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne

• Prof He Xin, City University of Hong Kong
• Dr Sabine Stricker-Kellerer, Senior China Counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

10.30-10.45 h — Coffee Break

10.45-12.15 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 1: Current Issues of the Implementation of Human Rights in China
Panel Chair: Prof Lin Feng, City University of Hong Kong

• Judicial Enforcement of International Human Rights through Weak Courts in China
  Wang Shucheng, City University of Hong Kong
• The Integration and Coordination within the UN Human Rights System and Its Challenges to China
  Sun Meng, China University of Political Science and Law
• Business, Sustainable Development and Human Rights in China
  Jernej Letnar Černič, Graduate School of Government and European Studies

Session 2: New Developments in Chinese Corporate Law and Securities Law
Panel Chair: Dr Knut Benjamin Pissler, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

• Accountability of Capital Maintenance Rules of Chinese Corporation Law after Recent Reform
  Sun Lifeng, China Railway International Co., Ltd.
• Antitakeover Measures in Chinese Corporate Governance: Rethinking IPOs in China
  Han Sirui, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Informality Matters: Enforcement of Securities Laws in China
  Xi Chao, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Session 3: Zhengfa: In Pursuit of the Component Elements for a Theory of Chinese Law
Panel Chair: Prof He Xin, City University of Hong Kong

• The Ideological Grammar of Chinese Law
  Rogier Creemers, University of Oxford
• The Narrative Building Blocks for the 4th Plenum: Developing Party Vocabulary on Rule of Law
  Ewan Smith, University of Oxford, Renmin University
• Political Discourse in the People’s War on Terror
  Susan Trevaskes, Griffith University

12.15-13.30 h — Lunch Break

13.30-15.00 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 4: Chinese Courts and Recent Judicial Reforms
Panel Chair: Prof Stéphanie Balme, Sciences Po

• Assessing China’s Court Reforms after One Year
  Susan Finder, Hong Kong University
• Judicial Autonomy and the Communist Party of China: The Roles of Political Legal Committee in the Decision-making of the Courts
  Yue Liu, University of British Columbia
• Study on the Legislationalization of Judicial Interpretations (“Sifa Jieshi”)
  Yang Guodong, Hamburg University
• The Status of Guiding Cases Under the Judicial Reform
  Li Weiwei, Shenzhen University

Session 5: Current Developments in Chinese Labour Law
Panel Chair: Dr Andreas Lauffs (TBC)

• Chinese Workers with Benefits
  Ronald Brown, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Labour in Defiance: The Emergence of Autonomous Collective Bargaining in China
  Zhang Yihong, University of Helsinki
• Transformation and Functional Evolution of the Sectoral Collective Bargaining in the PRC
  Valentina Bellomo, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Session 6: The Semiotics of Chinese Communist Party “Law” and State Law — Part I
Panel Chair: Dr Elisa Nesossi, Australian National University

• On the Historical Origins and Current Application of the Concept of the People's Democratic Dictatorship and the Mass Line
  Gao Shan, Pennsylvania State University
• The Ideological Structures of Chinese Constitutionalism: Reading the General Program of the Chinese Communist Party Constitution
  Larry Catá Backer, Pennsylvania State University
• “Seeking Truth from Facts” in Party Discipline Legislation
  Flora Sapio, Australian National University

15.00-15.30 h — Coffee Break

15.30-17.30 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 7: Central and Local Law-making in China
Panel Chair: Prof Caroline von Gall, University of Cologne

• How Do Local People’s Congresses Lead the Lawmaking in China: The Case of Legislative Evaluation
  Wen Guanbin, Tilburg University
• The Role of the State Council in the Lawmaking Process: The Case of the Anti-Monopoly Law
  Wendy Ng, University of Adelaide
• Whose Voice, Whose Interests?
  Natalie Mrockova, University of Oxford
• Regulation of the Inter-Provincial Establishment of Companies: Applying the Economics of Federalism to China
  Shen Guang, Maastricht University
• The Legislative Power of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone
  Madeleine Martinek, University of Göttingen

Session 8: Chinese Investment Law and New Developments in Bilateral Investment Treaties with China
Panel Chair: Prof Li Yuwen, University of Rotterdam

• Legal Reforms to Foreign Investment and International Investment Agreements
  Vivienne Bath, University of Sydney
• China’s New Bilateralism and Legal Competitive Externalities
  David Hallinan, University College Dublin
• China-EU Investment-Treaty – Preserving the Status Quo or Moving Forward?
  Hinrich Julius, Hamburg University
• Economic Exigencies and the Potential Proliferation of Investor-State Arbitration: When are Government Measures Tantamount to Expropriation?
  Claire Wilson, Hong Kong Shue Yan University
• Chinese Academic Discourse on International Dispute Resolution and Sovereignty in Economic and Territorial Disputes – Practice and Prospects of the PRC at the WTO DSM, ICSID, ITLOS and ICJ
  Thomas Stephan Eder, University of Vienna

Session 9: New Perspectives on the Nature of Chinese Law
Panel Chair: Dr Rogier Creemers, University of Oxford

• The Flexibility of Chinese Law – Trick or Treat?Lutz-Christian Wolff, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Law vs. Law Enforcement: The Case of Chengguan in ChinaPhilipp Hirschfeld
• Understanding the Conflict between China’s ConstitutionsJean Christopher Mittelstaedt, Sciences Po

18.00-20.00 h — Guided City Tour

Meeting Point: University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Please register your participation in the members’ area

Sunday, 27 September 2015

09.00-10.30 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 10: Legal Transfers as a Driving Factor of the Development of the Chinese Civil Code, Investment and Tax Law
Panel Chair: Prof Georg Gesk, Osnabrück University

• Foreign Trade and Investment Law in China: Legal Transfer and Development in an Evolving Legal System
  Zhao Lijun, Middlesex University
• A Civil Code for XXI Century China: Comparative Law Perspectives
  Marina Timoteo, University of Bologna
• Legal Transfers and the Development of the Chinese Tax System
  Bernard Schneider, Queen Mary University of London

Session 11: New Legal Perspectives on the Relation of the State and the Market
Panel Chair: Prof Lutz-Christian Wolff, Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Trademark Co-existence without Confusion in China? Recent Trademark Cases from the Zhejiang Courts
  Roger Greatrex, Lund University
• State as an Entrepreneur: A Study of the Investment Contractual Terms and Level of Control of China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund in its Portfolio Firms
  Li Jing, Tilburg University
• State Intervention, Planned Innovation: Law-Driven Developments in Chinese Hedge Funds
  Christopher Hsu, Goethe University Frankfurt

Session 12: The Semiotics of Chinese Communist Party “Law” and State Law — Part II
Panel Chair: Dr Flora Sapio, Australian National University

• Virtue, Law and the Perfectionist State: An Analysis of “Fazhi” with Xi’s Characteristics
  Elisa Nesossi, Australian National University
• The 2008 Anti-Monopoly Law
  Beth Farmer, Pennsylvania State University
• Reexamining Hong Kong’s Political Tensions under the Theoretical Foundation of Chinese Socialist System
  Wang Keren, Pennsylvania State University

10.30-11.00 h — Coffee Break

11.00-13.00 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 13: Images of Law: Legal Professions and Activism in Chinese Film
Panel Chair: Prof Felix Wemheuer, University of Cologne

• Executing Justice: A Gender Perspective on Inspector Wu Hongyan in “Night Train” by Diao Yinan (2007)
  Astrid Lipinsky, University of Vienna
• Mundane Police Work in Chinese Documentary Film: The Works of Zhao Liang and Zhou Hao
  Marina Svensson, Lund University
• Disobedient Images: Human Rights Lawyers’ Visual Advocacy and the Formation of Civic Rights Consciousness in China
  Eva Pils, King’s College London
• Picturing the Judiciary: (Re-)constructing the Person of the Judge in Chinese Film
  Agnes Schick-Chen, University of Vienna
• Comparing Judicial Cultures
  Stéphanie Balme, Sciences Po

Session 14: Investigating Legal Change in Divorce Law, Contract Law and Privacy Protection
Panel Chair: Prof Marina Timoteo, University of Bologna

• 百年(不)好合! One Hundred Years of Marital (Un)happiness! An Analysis of Divorce Proceedings Involving Domestic Violence in China
  Sara D’Attoma, Ca’ Foscari University Venice
• Good Faith in Chinese Civil Law
  Matti Tjäder, University of Lapland
• Personal Information Protection without a Public Right to Privacy: Revisiting the Recent Development of Chinese Law-making regarding Data Privacy and Surveillance
  Chen Yongxi, University of Hong Kong
• Online Privacy Protection in China: Present and Future
  Zhao Yun, Hong Kong University

Session 15: Tradition and Reform of Chinese Law
Panel Chair: Prof Roger Greatrex, University of Lund

• Theorising the Dynamics of Socio-legal Change in Early China
  Ernest Caldwell, SOAS University of London
• Western Universalism versus Cultural Relativism during the Process of Chinese Legal Transformation: The Example of Family Law as a “Hard Core” of Legal Culture
  Luo Gang, University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne
• Present at the Creation: Tracing the Origin of Terms Contained in the Macau Basic Law
  Jason Buhi, Beijing University, University of Hong Kong
• Seeing Tradition in Modernity: Yang Honglie’s Historiography of China’s Legal System
  Britta Büermann, University of Göttingen
• Chinese Culture and Perceptions of Rule of Law: A Comparison between Hong Kong and Taiwan
  Lee Karen, Hong Kong Institute of Education

13.00-14.00 h — Lunch Break

14.00-15.30 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 16: New Developments in Chinese Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law
Panel Chair: Prof Thomas Weigend, University of Cologne

• The Challenges of Implementation of Criminal Procedure Law
  Yue Liling, China University of Political Science and Law
• Legal and Political Rights Advocacy in Wrongful Conviction Cases: A Study of the Leping Case of Injustice
  Jiang Jue, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Accumulation of Criminal Actions as Risk Factor for Doing Business in China
  Georg Gesk, Osnabrück Univerisity

Session 17: Administrative Litigation and Environmental Protection Law
Panel Chair: Dr Chen Yongxi, University of Hong Kong

• The Reform of the Reform – Tendencies in China’s Administrative Law
  Nina Rotermund, University of Göttingen
• Towards the Blue Skies: The Revision of China’s Air Quality Prevention Act (AQPA) and Actual Changes that are Brought Upon
  Roni Blankett, Sami Laiso, Jaakko Rastas, University of Lapland
• State’s Obligation to Conduct Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in Preventing Nuclear Damage: An Overview of China’s Practice
  Ha Lisi, Wuhan Univeristy
• The Making of the Chinese Nationality Law
  Jasper Habicht, University of Cologne

Session 18: New Perspectives on the Interaction between Chinese Law and International Law
Panel Chair: Prof Peter-Tobias Stoll, University of Göttingen

• International and Domestic Law in China: A Sociolegal Perspective
  Wim Muller, University of Manchester
• Interaction Between International Standards and Domestic Constitutional Norms – A Case Study of the Chief Executive Election in Hong Kong
  Lin Feng, City University Hong Kong
• The Issue of China’s Market Economy Status after 2016
  Kong Qingjiang, China University of Political Science and Law
• Influence of International Law on the New Chinese Foreign Investment Law Draft
  Li Yuwen, University of Rotterdam

15.30-16.00 h — Coffee Break

16.00-17.30 h — Parallel Sessions

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
Session 19: Current Issues in Chinese Dispute Resolution
Panel Chair: Prof Katrin Blasek, Wildau University of Applied Sciences

• The Analysis of the Factors Driving Public Interest Litigation in China
  Jiang Junxin, University of Turku
• Competing over the Law: The Legal Consciousness of Petitioners in Chinese Courts
  Feng Yuqing, Southeast University
• Judicial “Mediation” in China – Recent Developments and Future Trends
  Nils Pelzer, Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law
• Why the Western ADR Theory Cannot Justify the Chinese Courts’ Role in Court-annexed Mediation – An Empirical Examination
  Li Yedan, University of Amsterdam

Session 20: Socio-Economic Transformation and Chinese Law
Panel Chair: Prof Ronald Brown, University of Hawaii at Manoa

• Theorising “Elder Law” in China: Towards a Relational Account
  Mimi Zou, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• The Elderly in Guardianship: A People-Centred Proposal
  Rebecca Lee, University of Hong Kong
• The Study of Support System of Policy and Law related to Embedded Social Structure and Social Community in Xinjiang
  Zhang Zhaoxia, Northwest University for Nationalities, Sichuan University
• “Collect Gold in Times of Trouble, Collect Jade in Good Times”: Private Market, Public Engagement and the Protection of Cultural Property in the People’s Republic of China
  Simona Novaretti, University of Turin

17.30–17.45 h — Closing Remarks

University of Cologne Seminar Building
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne

• Prof Björn Ahl, Convenor of the 10th Annual ECLS Conference