The space environment is unique. Natural decay of debris therein is much slower than pollutants in other environments, so that removal is difficult and expensive. Despites the voluntary implementation of mitigation guidelines, the amount of debris has surged in the last two decades due to increase and diversification of space actors, and the continuing militarization of space. Active Debris Removal has thus become a promising responsive scenario. This article examines key legal barriers to the implementation of removal, such as the lack of legal definition of space debris, ambiguities surrounding the jurisdiction and control over space debris, liability for possible damages caused in removal, and implications for space arms control. It further proposes that more comprehensive registration of space objects, an international catalogue of space debris and an international fund for removal should be promoted. Also, international cooperation should be enhanced to cope with space debris, while space arms control should be strengthened.

Global warming is a result of human influence. However, little has been done to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a ‘safe’ level. An important factor for such dismal state of affairs is that the international community has emphasized far too much on the State-centric approach to combating climate change. The international legal regime does not directly control major emitters or MNCs. This article recognizes the atmosphere as a part of the global commons and the atmospheric absorptive capacity as the common heritage of mankind. Therefore, the international community can pave the way to link global climate change regime and MNCs. Those common interests of the international community can be protected when MNCs turn their production processes green, by redirecting their investment into green technology, and try to alter the negative status quo.

Advanced telecommunication technologies enable us to employ new methods for judicial acts in the national civil procedure, such as facilitating evidence through a video-link system. However, before implementing these methods in the national proceedings for cases with foreign elements, it is necessary to elucidate the relationship between sovereignty and judicial acts of courts, including the validation of these new methods. This is because judicial acts by courts are considered to fall within the purview of the exercise of sovereignty from a Japanese perspective. From the analysis on Japanese state practices to date, it is recognized that Japan has strictly abided by the principle of territoriality under public international law. Nevertheless, reconsidering the meaning of sovereignty, Japan can adopt a more liberal and tolerant policy. In particular, Japan can become more tolerant of other countries’ judicial acts, which may be conducive to the better delivery of justice in transnational civil and commercial dispute settlements.

The Chinese toxic milk scandal raised tremendous global concerns about food safety in China. To repair the tarnished reputation of domestic food production, Chinese authorities focused on compulsory food safety liability insurance. Unfortunately, the introduction of compulsory food safety liability insurance in the Food Safety Law of the PRC has been delayed by the disagreements of Chinese legal scholars. Chinese legal scholars have examined the legitimacy of compulsory food safety liability insurance in China mainly from the standpoint of domestic laws. The valuable insight of international laws has been ignored by them. This article attempts to fill this research gap by scrutinizing the Chinese endeavor of launching compulsory food safety liability insurance through the joint perspective of public and private international law. It further demonstrates that the ideology of human rights of public international law has already penetrated into the body of broadly-interpreted private international law.

The recent surge of multijurisdictional IP disputes and increase in non-binding soft laws have made scholars cast doubt on the sustainability of public international law and the validity of the current IP legal system. Private lawyers may now think that they do not have to pay keen attention to public international law any longer when providing legal advice to their clients, particularly MNCs. This study makes a concise description of today’s legal environment in the field of IP, focusing on the emerging legal norms of transnational law, particularly in the context of its interplay with public international law. With respect to this, the ongoing and even heightened roles of public international law will be discussed. Finally, a typology is suggested using exponents to express intensity of State sovereignty to facilitate understanding on the relationship between public international law and other categories of law.

China’s economic success and trade expansion since the 1980s is one of the most important economic achievements, which lifted more populations out of extreme poverty than any other time and place in history. This achievement has been made possible by trade-led development policies successfully adopted by China. China also joined the WTO in 2001, after fifteen years of negotiations with its trade partners, and is subject to WTO legal disciplines requiring the transparency of its trade-related decisions and procedures. This article examines China’s economic reform, which led to its accession into the WTO, and reviews China’s trade and development policies under the WTO. In addition, this article discusses China’s participation in the WTO Dispute Settlement Procedure. There has been a concern as to whether China will be compliant with the requirements under the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The article shows that China has become an active participant and has maintained well under the terms of the DSU.

Driven by market, consumer preferences and recent climate change discussions, the usage of ‘sustainability’ standards has over the last decade gained ground worldwide. Sustainability standards are largely voluntary, non-mandatory and an increasingly important component of the green economy. While on the one hand the usage of sustainability standards helps achieve several economic and environment objectives, on the other hand they can potentially act as barriers to trade in particular for small producers. This paper examines the potential trade and commercial aspects of sustainability standards in terms of their diversity, cost of incorporation and interaction with supply chains. It considers the compatibility of sustainability standards with the existing trade architecture of the World Trade Organization, drawing on relevant case law developments. Finally, it recommends the usage of international platforms such as the UNFSS and ITC Standards map, to enable product/ service specific information sharing, conformity assessment and business networking.

In the past few years, the Chinese government has put the internationalization of CNY on the map. Besides regular reforms such as facilitating CNY trading settlement and relaxing capital accounts, China deployed the Pilot Free Trade Zone and the One Belt One Road policy to significantly expand investment channels for CNY. It was also considered as a response to the criticism of CNY’s trade-driven model. CNY was developing from a trade currency to an investment currency and now has the potential to be a global reserve currency. The growth of CNY as an international currency could counterbalance the US dollardominated system and contribute to regional and international financial constancy. However, CNY internationalization is a double-edged sword. Inflow surges or disruptive outflows of capitals can give rise to macroeconomic fluctuation. With regard to the potential risks, it is suggested that Chinese authorities adopt more market-based measures and make the best of the international arrangements to protect the domestic financial integrity and stability.

On January 16, 2016, AIIB declared its opening for business. Ever since its announcement by Chinese leaders in 2013, AIIB has been warmly embraced by most countries of the world. But still, neither the US nor Japan have become the AIIB members. Both of them take a rather cautious approach, viewing AIIB more as a challenge to the existing international financial order. By comparison, this paper finds that each country casts similar doubts. The US places its focal point more on ‘China-led’ rather than ‘new MDB.’ Japan focuses more on ‘new MDB’ instead of ‘China-led,’ meanwhile considering how to cope with the dilemma between the US and China. Orienting itself towards a more balanced international economic order, this paper attempts to seek a kind of positive cooperation based on the coordination of tri-lateral interests, thus suggesting the US and Japan to join AIIB as an external supervisor and internal member respectively.

Monopolistic mechanisms can be detected in China in many respects through Chinese internet monopolists would outperform their peers in the US or the EU by. The Chinese government endeavors to keep its Internet industry globally competitive and thus authorities involved in antitrust activities tend to tolerate the oligopolistic structure of the market. This is evidenced most obviously in the repression of competitors in certain fields, e.g., ‘Baidu,’ the ‘Chinese Google,’ in the field of IT-services – leading to a stricter regime of monopoly control in terms of substantial law. However, in the course of enforcement, various legal and practical challenges impede the efficiency of these measures. This paper analyses existing competition law enforcement and proposes effective application of antitrust law for its enforcement in the Internet industry under present Chinese law.

The practice of International Investment Agreements (IIAs) has developed immensly during the past 15 years. In particular, China has gained significant experience in concluding IIAs, adapting to concerns raised following an overflow of investor state disputes. This article analyzes an interesting case-study: an investment promotion agreement signed and negotiated between China and Israel (CIBIT) during the 1990s, however ratified more than a decade later, in 2009, without modifying or updating its contents. This commentary identifies major gaps in the CIBIT, including those concerning its preamble, key definitions of ‘Investment’ and ‘Investor’, standard of protection: FET, MFN, NT, and ISDS provisions, vis-à-vis the wider transformation of international investment law. Special emphasis is given to China’s change in approach to investment and IIAs. The growing economic ties between China and Israel, including recent discussions about a free trade agreement, requires a thorough understanding of the risks and benefits of the CIBIT. Therefore, the commentary concludes with an outline of a strategic roadmap for the future revision of the CIBIT.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), known as the ‘economic’ NATO Agreement dominated by the United States, will impose profound influence on the politics, economy, society and intellectual property system in China. There are deep-seated reasons why the US are extremely active to make TPP signed and why China is ruled out in the course of the negotiations. Since China has entered into the WTO, the domestic and international market is closely related, and TPP must have significant impact on China’s international market. With regard to the influence, China shall take efficient measures to cope with, including: dealing with issues appropriately regarding its economic sovereignty, based on its own situations, promoting of negotiations on free trade agreement, keeping on improving the hard and soft power in intellectual property, fully taking advantages of “the Belt and Road Strategy” and exploring new market; and getting ready for constant adaptation to TPP rules and the like.

Even though no international legal instrument explicitly provides the right for States to establish ADIZs, such zones have been unilaterally declared since the 1950s. China’s ADIZ above the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands - a disputed area in the East China Sea and her recent activities in disputed maritime features in the South China Sea have given rise to concerns about other ADIZs that Beijing may possibly establish above this area. In that context, this paper ventures to draw some potential ADIZs, which may be established by China above the South China Sea, and predicts diplomatic and legal reactions from other States.