Browse results
Volume 8 of the Yearbook covers a wide range of topics focusing on accountability under various legal regimes, which have been organized along four parts: Governance and Accountability, Justice and Accountability, Economic and Social Justice and Violence and Accountability.
Volume 8 of the Yearbook covers a wide range of topics focusing on accountability under various legal regimes, which have been organized along four parts: Governance and Accountability, Justice and Accountability, Economic and Social Justice and Violence and Accountability.
The objectives of the Yearbook are two-fold: First, to promote research, study and writing in the field of international law in Asia; and second, to provide an intellectual platform for the discussion and dissemination of Asian views and practices on contemporary international legal issues.
Each volume of the Yearbook contains articles and shorter notes; a section on Asian state practice; an overview of the Asian states’ participation in multilateral treaties and succinct analysis of recent international legal developments in Asia; a bibliography that provides information on books, articles, notes, and other materials dealing with international law in Asia; as well as book reviews. This publication is important for anyone working on international law and international relations.
The objectives of the Yearbook are two-fold: First, to promote research, study and writing in the field of international law in Asia; and second, to provide an intellectual platform for the discussion and dissemination of Asian views and practices on contemporary international legal issues.
Each volume of the Yearbook contains articles and shorter notes; a section on Asian state practice; an overview of the Asian states’ participation in multilateral treaties and succinct analysis of recent international legal developments in Asia; a bibliography that provides information on books, articles, notes, and other materials dealing with international law in Asia; as well as book reviews. This publication is important for anyone working on international law and international relations.
The Yearbook was originally founded in cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, but fell silent from 2008 onwards. It now has a new editorial team, consisting of internationally based human rights scholars and a team of editors at the Institute for Human Rights of the China University of Political Science and Law and the Center for Human Rights Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Volume 6, 2024 focuses on the topical issues of the interpretation and implementation of the right to peace, the right to work, and the right to education. Several other issues, such as international human rights mechanisms, business and human rights, climate change litigation, poverty alleviation, and anti-domestic violence, are also covered.
The Yearbook was originally founded in cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, but fell silent from 2008 onwards. It now has a new editorial team, consisting of internationally based human rights scholars and a team of editors at the Institute for Human Rights of the China University of Political Science and Law and the Center for Human Rights Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Volume 6, 2024 focuses on the topical issues of the interpretation and implementation of the right to peace, the right to work, and the right to education. Several other issues, such as international human rights mechanisms, business and human rights, climate change litigation, poverty alleviation, and anti-domestic violence, are also covered.
Abstract
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council is an important institutional innovation in the development of international human rights governance. For more than a decade, states’ interactions in the three UPR cycles have taken on a complex character. Previous studies have paid much attention to states’ recommendations in the UPR mechanism, from which several hypotheses can be formulated regarding the factors influencing states’ recommendations during a Universal Periodic Review. These hypotheses, which cover multiple factors, can be verified in a quantitative statistical manner based on a large number of human rights indicators and data on trade and political system. Furthermore, a keyword classification method can be applied to explore the influence of regional factors on the states’ recommendations in a Universal Periodic Review. The results of the multiple data analysis indicate that the human rights situation in the state under review is the main factor influencing the recommendations made by member states in the review. In addition, the influence of regional factors (regional organizations and regional groups) on states’ behavior is also highlighted.
Abstract
The early regulations on sexual harassment in China were mainly made as a special protection for women in Chinese law until the promulgation of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China completed the degenderization of the concept of sexual harassment. On the practical level, abuse of power is often coupled with sexual harassment. Ensuring the proper use of institutional power is an inherent requirement for system formulation and implementation, and it is also the fundamental reason for the Civil Code to stipulate that organs, enterprises, schools and other units should take the obligation to prevent and control sexual harassment.
Abstract
The implementation of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law in 2016 has planted the prevention and control of domestic violence in the soil of rule of law. An empirical study of 3,961 adjudication documents indicates that cases applying the Anti-Domestic Violence Law show a rapid increase in number, a wide and varied geographical distribution, and a variety of causes of action, but a relatively concentrated focus. The judicial application of this law has strongly promoted the prevention and suppression of domestic violence and effectively safeguarded human rights of the victims of domestic violence. However, in the judicial application of the law, there are several problems such as differences in the definitions of the scope of the subject of quasi-domestic violence and domestic violence, confusion in the application of the legal conditions for the issuance of personal safety protection orders, judicial inertia, lack of interpretation and reasoning, difficulties in the proof of the injured party, etc. Therefore, the standards for the application of the law should be clarified to achieve a balance between family autonomy and state intervention, and the scientific application of the law should be guaranteed to prevent and suppress domestic violence further. At the same time, in the era of Civil Code, the application of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law should be well connected with the application of the relevant provisions of the Civil Code in order to comprehensively strengthen the judicial protection of human rights.
Abstract
The emergence and development of international human rights mechanisms are characterized by their own history, reality, theory, and path logic. The construction of human rights discourse during World War II, the formation of a comprehensive peace view and the globalization of human rights after the Cold War jointly constitute the historical logic of the international human rights mechanisms. The universal generalization movement of human rights is the realistic driving force of international human rights mechanisms. The promotion of morality and the defense of sovereignty run through the universal generalization of human rights. The game between universal generalization of the human rights mechanisms and respect for national sovereignty has generated a dual mode of “the coexistence of strong political nature and weak legal nature” of international human rights mechanisms. The theory of natural law and natural rights not only has a great impact on the thought and practice of international law, but also has left a deep imprint on the institutional design of international human rights mechanisms. The development of international human rights mechanisms presents a functionalist path of institutional spillover, but lacks the coordination of authoritative institutions, resulting in a dual track structure, self-sufficient development and functional convergence, as well as causing problems such as mechanism expansion, disorder and fragmentation. Based on this, the reform of the global human rights governance system should consolidate international consensus, adhere to the principle of functional differentiation and effectively balance political logic and legal logic.
Abstract
In recent years, litigants have begun to use human rights as gateway to climate change litigation in some jurisdictions and achieved limited success. Some scholars see this “human rights turn” as new opportunities to advance climate change mitigation through the judicial process, while others criticize it as an abuse of human rights law that could lead to illegitimate sanctions on emitters. Human rights-based climate change litigation should be understood as strategic litigation, whose purpose is not to resolve a specific dispute or gain compensation for damages, but rather to promote broader social and policy change. To achieve this goal, plaintiffs use as wide a range of rights as possible, including the rights to life, property, peace in private life, health, environment and so on, and expand the subject of rights to future generations and foreign citizens, arguing that both the state and carbon majors should be held accountable for the diminished human rights caused by climate change. In theory, the strength of the human rights approach lies in empowering the judiciary to go beyond the paradigm of updating the interpretation of existing norms and create norms. There are hardly any obstacles in terms of legal techniques to the performance of this function, as filling lacune of law through recourse to various principles of human rights law has already become a relatively mature model of judicial reasoning. However, a series of factual obstacles still exist and may hinder the implementation of this theoretically well-established function. The judiciary, after all, cannot enforce its own policy decisions without the cooperation of other public authorities. Furthermore, the power of norm-making by appealing to human rights is highly culture-specific, which means it might not be supported in a culture of adjudication where right is not considered as trump.
Abstract
The actual impact of climate change and the new demand for the theoretical development of environmental law have the concept of “constitutional environmental right” examined again. The original mission of the constitutional environmental right is to declare its legitimacy and give full play to its instrumental value so as to achieve the fundamental goal of “protecting a good ecological environment”. On the one hand, the instrumental value of constitutional environmental right is reflected in giving play to the functions of a substantive right and forming a specific constitutional benchmark with the help of human rights theory. On the other hand, it is reflected in showing the functions of a procedural right and assisting in entering the constitutional review procedure so as to strengthen the constitutional constraints on organs of public power. After analyzing the “Climate Ruling” of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, it can be found that under the national target clause of environmental constitution, the constitutional environmental right can only play a limited procedural auxiliary function, whereas the climate litigation can be opened and judged mainly through the review framework on basis of the traditional defense rights. We can explore procedural constitutional environmental right in combination with China’s constitutional review system, or explore other aspects of constitutional environmental right according to the development of environmental protection needs on the premise of in-depth study of the normative approach of national target clauses and clarifying and making good use of current norms and systems.
Abstract
The National Human Rights Action Plan (2021–2025) issued by the State Council Information Office is the fourth national human rights action plan formulated by the Chinese government. Based on the new historical development period, it responds to the people’s new demands for human rights protection in the new era, and puts forward the phased goals and specific tasks for the State to respect, protect and promote human rights, marking a new milestone in the development of China’s human rights cause. This action plan adheres to the “people-centered” human rights philosophy, takes “promoting the free, comprehensive and common development of all people” as the overall goal of human rights development, and proposes six principles of promotion including “smart advancement”. It combines comprehensiveness and focus in terms of content organization, consolidation and enhancement in terms of task requirements, and domestic and international development in terms of strategic layout. In response to new demands for human rights protection in new contexts such as the ecological environment crisis, the digital era and the risk society, a series of corresponding measures have been formulated, and the action plan requires to establish and improve the system and mechanism of gender equality in the workplace, to develop people’s democracy in the whole process, to enhance the awareness of the whole society to respect and protect human rights, and to deeply participate in international human rights affairs, which demonstrates a new pattern of comprehensively promoting high-level development in various aspects of human rights.