The Faculty of Law at University of Bergen has for a decade or so, with the indispensable advice and support from our strategic partner Renmin University of China Law School in Beijing, developed a strong cooperation with a broad range of Chinese academic and business partners. The main aim of our activities is to establish mutual opportunities for students and scholars to increase the knowledge of each other’s legal system, and to gain better understanding of how different or apparently similar rules work in practice. China’s increased importance on the global stage in recent years has triggered much debate among politicians, academics, ngo representatives, and other participants in public debates in western liberal democracies. Polarisation, scepticism and uncertainty has been, and still is, the gist of many of these debates. On the other hand, western business companies have with great enthusiasm grasped the immense market opportunities in China. And the gradual shift from production to innovation and invention in the Chinese business sector, represents additional opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between western and Chinese business entities. In this landscape, the Faculty of Law at University of Bergen strongly believe in more dialogue, more exchange, and more cooperation, not less. And in order to facilitate and further promote this cooperation, the Board of the University of Bergen established in February 2017 the Norwegian China Law Centre at the Faculty of Law. The Centre coordinates the Faculty of Law’s academic activities with Chinese partners, and is also supporting other University of Bergen faculties, entities, and scholars who would like to establish cooperation with Chinese partners.

This book is the result of a research project and conference jointly organised by Norwegian China Law Centre at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Renmin University of China Law School and University of Bielefeld in Germany. We are grateful for the generous financial support from all these three academic institutions. The conference was also financially supported by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (Diku). An organising committee was pulled together for the planning of the event: The wise counsel and contribution of Elisabeth Steiner, Judge of European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (2001–2015), Sir Richard Aikens, Lord Justice of Appeal, Court of Appeal in England and Wales (2008–2015), ZHU Yan, Professor, Renmin Law School, Ragna Aarli, Professor, Faculty of Law at University of Bergen, and Anne Sanders, Professor, Faculty of Law at University of Bielefeld, was instrumental for the success of the conference. Professor Aarli and Professor Sanders have had the endurance to transform some of the conference presentations into a publication, and thus made the insights shared at the conference available to a wider circle of people. For this effort, we are most thankful. And without the strong and long-lasting support from Professor HAN Dayuan at Renmin Law School, the gathering of academics and professional judges in Beijing would not have been possible.

We are truly grateful to all the distinguished participants that accepted our invitation to contribute to the conference: Vice President and Grand Justice of Supreme People’s Court of prc, Madame TAO Kaiyuan, Executive Vice-President and Professor at Renmin University WANG Liming, His Excellency Geir O. Pedersen, who was the Norwegian ambassador to China at that time, Dean and Professor WANG Yi from Renmin Law School, and Dean and Professor Karl Harald Søvig from Faculty of Law at University of Bergen for strongly supporting the conference in their opening remarks.

A main purpose of the conference was to bring together academics and practitioners from the judiciary. We are particularly grateful to the judges who were willing to share their time and engage in our discussions. Apart from Sir Richard Aikens who also joined our organizing committee, we are truly grateful to ZHAO Daguang, the former Director and Judge of the administrative adjudication tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court of prc, Senior Judge JIAN Huiling from the Supreme People’s Court of prc and Director of the China Institute of Applied Jurisprudence, Director and Judge XUE Feng of the Administrative Adjudication Tribunal of Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court, former President and Judge SU Chi from Beijing Intellectual Property Court, Vice President and Judge CAO Shibing from the National Judges College, Supreme Court Justice Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen and Supreme Court Justice Magnus Matningsdal, both from Norway, Justice Reinhard Gaier, former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, and Supreme Court Justice Nina Betetto from Slovenia.

Of course, Professor CHEN Weidong, Assistant Professor DU Lei (both Renmin Law School), Professor Andreas Lienhard (University of Bern, Switzerland), Assistant Lecturer and Research Fellow Vanessa Hellmann (University of Bielefeld, Germany), and Professor Remco van Rhee (Maastricht University, The Netherlands), who have developed their papers to chapters in this book deserve our special thanks. We would also like to thank Justice Magnus Matningsdal from the Supreme Court of Norway, Professor SUN Xiaoxia from Fudan University Law School, Grand Procurator of prc and professor of Renmin Law School DAI Youzhong, Professor David S. Law from Hong Kong University and Washington University in St. Louis, and Professor ZHU Jingwen from Renmin Law School for their academic presentations that are not included in this book. We would furthermore like to thank Professor WANG Chenguang from Tsinghua University School of Law, Professor YAO Hui from Renmin Law School and former Deputy Director of the Civil Adjudication Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court of PRC, Professor ZHANG Jianwei from Tsinghua University School of Law, Professor HE Jiahong and Professor HAN Dayuan, both from Renmin Law School, for chairing sessions and facilitating fruitful debates during the conference.

The participants who contributed to the refinement of the texts in this book by their thought-provoking comments and questions at the conference are hereby also acknowledged. At last, but not least, we thank student Kristine Skorpen for assistance in finalizing and proof-reading the texts, assistant Desmond Chu for his translations of chapters 8 and 9 from Chinese to English and CHEN Lei, head of international office at Renmin Law School for her faithful follow-ups of all the practicalities in China. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Renmin Law School for graciously hosting the conference.

Professor Bjørnar Borvik, Director of Norwegian China Law Centre at Faculty of Law, University of Bergen