Search results

The Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a unique identity. This study is based on a long period of research undertaken between 1995 and 2014. Permanent residents, the Chinese of Macau and all other MSAR residents constitute a body of model “citizens” which makes their legal identity understandable in the MSAR’s present social and economic context. Macau’s legal identity is based on centuries of trade and commerce. In Article 5 of the first chapter (I-5) of the MSAR’s Basic Law, the “way of life” in Macau’s society and economy are recognized as part of the MSAR’s legal framework. However, social change may play an important role in Macau’s development. The purpose of this paper is to look at the legal corpus as though it was a physical body with rights and duties, but also capabilities based on the nationality and residence statuses of its citizens, its companies and other entities (which will be studied more specifically in following articles).

This study has used the combined approaches of fieldwork carried out between 2010 and 2015, interviews, and questionnaires.

Way of life and the concept of One Country, Two Systems are key points that contribute to Macau’s contemporary identity. Way of life in the Basic Law constitutes a complex matrix formulation based on a series of particular facts and cultural traits, which leads to a better legal definition of important concepts such as nationality and residency in the particular case of Macau. The Basic Law is the constitutional law of the MSAR, but “Chineseness” still dominates the locals’ identity from day to day. More than 65 percent of the interviewees in the survey asserted their “Chineseness.” However, both Chinese and Portuguese, will continue to be official languages of Macau until 2049. The MSAR’s Chinese society speaks Cantonese and increasingly Putonghua, but it does not seem concerned by communicating using the Portuguese language. Clayton’s thesis emphasized the “unique cultural identity” of the MSAR and wrote that what made the Chinese of Macau “different from other Chinese, is the existence of a Portuguese state on Chinese soil.” Portuguese cultural tolerance is not mentioned, but it is a historical fact that has influenced Macau’s legal identity. The MSAR’s government has done its best to harmonize Macau’s multicultural society and it has particularly protected the Sino-Portuguese way of life in Macau.

To apply the law and maintain the existing harmony in its society and economy, legal actions have had to be taken by the Macau government and courts. The courts of the MSAR are structured in three levels and have final powers of adjudication, except in very narrow political areas. The judicial system includes the following courts, from the highest to the lowest: the Court of Final Appeal, the Court of Second Instance and the Court of First Instance (Tribunal de Primeira Instância).

This research is unique inasmuch as studies of legal identities focussed on large regions such as the MSAR of China are rare.

This paper aims to highlight key challenges to the rule of law in Hong Kong.

This study deploys a historical and legal approach to explore the key challenges to the rule of law in Hong Kong. In particular, this paper analyzes legal conflicts in Hong Kong.

The findings show how the rule of law in Hong Kong has become a prominent battlefield of a constitutional struggle between Hong Kong Law and Chinese Law.

This paper hypothesizes that the conflicts arise from the different interpretations and conceptualizations of the rule of law between China and Hong Kong.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the two decades since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty, assessing developments against the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the international agreement under which Hong Kong was transferred from British to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997, and which first set out China’s “basic policies” toward Hong Kong.

The paper’s analysis of developments focuses particularly on areas of controversy, from the extent to which Hong Kong has enjoyed a “high degree of autonomy” to basic rights and freedoms and the legal and judicial systems.

It argues that on the whole, the policies set out in the Joint Declaration have been well implemented: Hong Kong has retained its separate systems since 1997, including rule of law and an independent judiciary, basic rights and freedoms, and separate government and social systems. However, especially since the “occupy” movement of 2014, questions about the sustainability of the “one country, two systems” arrangement have come to the surface.

The paper is distinctive in its assessment of developments against the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign investments in light of the latter's recent inauguration of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) as a basic norm of regional customary international law and strategy for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule on their territories for over half a century.

The approach taken is textual analysis and deconstruction of emergent SADC BEE legislation, substantive BIT legislation provisions, dispute settlement mechanisms and emergent jurisprudence on the tensions between BEE policy and BIT obligations.

The strong elements of exclusivity between European/SADC BIT dispute settlement mechanisms on the one hand, and the “ouster clauses” of SADC BEE legislation and regulations on the other, are mutually incompatible. This incompatibility threatens the sustainability of the EU/SADC states' BIT dynamic for the promotion and protection of foreign direct investments (FDIs).

Demonstration of BEE as SADC's emergent basic norm of social reconstruction for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule in affected states and implications of that for EU/SADC policy on the promotion and protection of FDIs.

The purpose of this paper is to assess critically the political challenges facing Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” policy following the Umbrella Movement and to evaluate the territory’s democratic and autonomous future.

A critical, contextual, and analytical approach has been adopted to evaluate the problems and prospects for post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong.

The contradictions embedded in the “one country, two systems” policy have become apparent since the Umbrella Movement arose and Hong Kong’s political and democratic future is as problematic as its prospects are uncertain, though the possibility of some rapprochement between Hong Kong and Beijing should not be ruled out completely.

The critical evaluation offered by this paper is no scientific prediction. Social scientific analysis of this kind is suggestive rather than definitive. The informed discussion offered by this paper will help readers to better understand the strengths and weaknesses inherent in Beijing’s “one country, two systems” policy and the tortuous process of democratization in Hong Kong. The conclusion drawn in the paper points to a possible way out of the political impasse that is facing post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong.

This paper is a pioneering study of the most important political conflict between Beijing and Hong Kong since 1997, the conclusion of which may have important political and policy implications for both China and Hong Kong.

Returning now to the food and drug law itself, for an additional explanation of it. This law is broadly divided into two regulatory parts ; but they each have a common protective purpose, which has been defined. The first part of this law is a basic one just indicated. For it is a law to prohibit an injurious or deceitful adulteration, misbranding and false advertisement of all food and drugs ; and its last prohibition was added in the twentieth century, when the art of modern commercial advertising was developed. The major statute of this law is of course the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which is practically administered by the United States Food and Drug Administration ; and it has the supreme importance of being our national law to outlaw any food or drug that may kill or harm.

The purpose of this study is to consider the complementarity of ethics and law with regard to the problem of their common existence in society through the identification of common and different characteristics in the philosophy of I. Kant.

This study is based on the observation that in modern society ethics and law remain the main social regulators and their co-existence requires the definition of their interaction and complementarity. Also, as this problem is closely related to issues of freedom and obligation, it is necessary to show their role in ethics and law.

The results show that the complementarity of ethics and law is due to the obligation that unites them, and the categorical imperative is the only postulate of ethics and the rights to execute, which allows a person to always remain worthy of his name. Ethics also has the meaning of legal capacity, and law means the recognition of people moral independence by public authorities. Thus, the law must protect a person not only from arbitrariness on the part of other people but also from the state power.

This paper uses a philosophical approach, the utility of which is that ethics and law are studied as elements of normative regulation system of the society in terms of the phenomenal and noumenal nature of a man. It is proposed to consider ethics and law not only as different social regulators, which have their own specifics but also as complementary elements of a single social being, which should exist together and not attempt to substitute one another.

This public educational conference on our food and drug law has a particular significance. For in the first place it deals with the public law of greatest personal importance to our people ; and that is why it is truly called “ the people's law ” In the second place this law is inadequately known, mainly for three reasons. They are: (a) the general public ordinarily has no direct contact with this law; (b) its official reports do not reach that public, as a rule; and (c) other general publicity about it is insufficient. Furthermore, this conference has the additional value of recalling that our people now enjoy the highest food and drug standards of living ever reached anywhere. That situation has an essential relation to the national welfare ; and it was achieved by the great scientific, technological and economic progress of our food and drug industries. But the food and drug law has played an indispensable role in this achievement.