Transnational terrorism in the twenty-first century is a unique threat that has sparked equally unique responses from nations at the receiving end of it, particularly the US. Some of these responses, however, have ignored both provisions of international law and the political realities prevailing in regions of Pakistan where the Drone strikes have been conducted. This poses various policy problems as the US has continuously used legal lacunae in international humanitarian law to carry on its “war on terror.” This paper addresses the problem by proposing a new form of armed conflict known as “transnational armed conflict,” which accounts for the unique nature of a conflict between a State and a non-State actor operating from the territory of another State. It allows for the setting of appropriate impact and assessment thresholds that could effectively bring such countermeasures in compliance with the accepted principles of international humanitarian law.

Three foreign investment laws of China were enacted when she was mainly a capitalimporting state. The main purpose of these laws was to boost the Chinese economy with the capital, technology and management of foreign investors. Many preferential treatments, rather than national treatment, were given to foreign investment especially before the country joined the WTO. Following the reform of market economy, fair and equal treatment to foreign investors are replacing the preferential treatments. A new draft of Foreign Investment Law was released in the spring of 2015 to reform the governance of foreign investment by granting national treatment to foreign investors in both admission and operation. The restrictions to foreign investment will be subject to the categories of special administrative measures, which are composed of forbidden and restrictive categories. This is going to be China’s biggest reform on the legal system of foreign investment since 1980s.

Canada and China’s new Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (“CC-FIPA”) came into force on October 1, 2014. This work discusses some of the main benefits to be gained from building stronger investment relations between Canada- China, as well as a Canadian perspective on the main investment risks that are most likely to impede either country from achieving the full potential in their investment relations. Against this backdrop, this work then examines those provisions in the CCFIPA that are most central to promoting Canada-China investment benefits, as well as those provisions that are most relevant to protecting against the investment risks in Canada-China relations.

The MV Arctic Sunrise, a vessel bearing the flag of the Netherlands, was detained by Russian authorities. The Netherlands instituted Annex VII arbitral proceedings against the Russian Federation and requested the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to prescribe provisional measures for the immediate release of the vessel and its crewmembers. On January 22, 2013, the Philippines instituted arbitral proceedings to challenge China’s claims over the South China Sea and the underlying seabed. Both China and Russia claim that the tribunal in question does not have jurisdiction, and neither of them appeared before the tribunal. This article offers an analysis of the facts and reasoning in the Arctic Sunrise case concerning Russia’s declaration and its nonappearance. Furthermore, this article explores the relevant provisions of UNCLOS and relevant views, as well as attitudes of ITLOS towards certain issues.

This article examines two questions: (1) whether the Production Sharing Contract in oil and gas sectors between different countries should be considered as an international agreement or a private agreement; and (2) how to formulate uplift in the PSC which contains the value of equity for investors and the State. In the Production Sharing Contract, there is problem of setting the tax on oil and gas sector particularly uplift policy relating to the taxation of income in the state revenue sources. This issue is related to the return of controversy of operational costs recognized by the contractor (cost recovery claim). This tax controversy gave rise to uplift that is only levied on oil and gas State owned Enterprises contracting partners in the scheme of the Joint Operating Body, especially in the old fields with advanced technology (Enhanced Oil Recovery). The controversy is related to the declining production and increased production costs that are recognized by the contractor.

The concept of self-defense takes such an important place in the UN Charter and international law. The concept of collective self-defense should also be interpreted and applied within the clear parameters of stated principles of the UN Charter. This is not a concept that can be elastically applied so as to cover a wide range of instances that require military action by like-minded States acting in response to contingent situations. The discussion of collective self-defense within the specific context of Japan at the moment, however, seems to involve issues larger than or beyond the traditional concept of self-defense. Arguably, some aspects of the issues posed seem to fall under the collective security realm which is reserved to the authority of the UN Security Council or which at least requires authorization or delegation from the Security Council. Using the term collective self-defense to address a wide spectrum of military contingencies to be tackled by collective security regime may not square with the provisions of the UN Charter.

In the international trading system today, regional trade agreements, referring to reciprocal trade agreements between two or more countries providing exclusive trade preferences, govern not only the trade relations among the parties to the RTAs, but also form additional sets of trade disciplines. These agreements exist parallel to the multilateral trading system under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. The GATT/WTO rules authorize RTAs under certain conditions; thus on the surface, RTAs appear to be a legitimate part of the WTO system. However, in substance, the preferential terms of trade in RTAs are essentially in conflict with the most important principle of the WTO system, the most-favored-nation treatment. The current proliferation of RTAs thus makes exclusive RTA preferences, which are supposedly an exception to the MFN principle, a rule rather than an exception. This article examines GATT/WTO rules on RTAs, addresses the potential conflict between RTAs and the WTO system with potential solutions, and analyzes RTAs from the development perspective.

“The rise of China” is a critical issue of the twenty-first century’s world politics. China is leading the new bipolar system in the post-Cold War period with the US. As the American dominance in East Asia became weaker, the old containment could not be fully implemented anymore. As a result, a new comprehensive strategic initiative covering the whole Pacific coastal States is being adopted. The outcome of this transformation is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was reached on October 5, 2015. This article aims to analyze the newly arisen TPP as a post-Cold War strategic alliance of East Asia. The TPP is a mega regional trade agreement. Its predictable legal setting is thus indispensable for the peaceful coordination of competition between both sides. The TPP could be a firm ground for the stability of this region, sharing the vision of cooperation, not confrontation in the future.

So far, eight rounds of China-Japan-Korea FTA negotiations have been conducted. From 2015 on, the negotiations are expected to make great progress. Accordingly, CJK FTA has drawn increasing attention of scholars from multidimensionality. Still, there lacks concerns over the possible arrangement of each specific issue under such framework. Building on prior scholarship, this paper attempts to view such fragmented debate from the perspective of building a new international economic order. It suggests a developing track for CJK FTA to consider in designing its details: WTO→CJK FTA→RCEP(OBOR)→TPP→A New Multilateral Order. Only by so viewing can the important trilateral FTA play an appropriate role in future regional and global governance, so as to obtain the Asian voice in restructuring the international rules. Based on that, this paper further exemplifies a possible stepping stone regarding regional antidumping regimes and proposes adopting the WTO ADA Plus in CJK FTA. Such a proposal would become a crucial ‘blueprint’ for restructuring the multilateral ADA mechanism.

After the catastrophic financial crisis in of 2008, a significant portion of the legal academia in the globe has started to concentrate on the interrelationship between law, financial stability and economic development. Through reviewing the voluminous literature in this field, it is figured out that the scope of law has been largely confined to strengthening regulation of the pre-crisis unbundled derivative transactions and enhancing cooperation among sovereign States by making formal sources of international law. Few discussions have been made to scrutinize the existing regulatory structures for the domestic financial markets of sovereign countries and demonstrate the potential possessed by informal international law in reinforcing the efficacy of these regulatory structures. By comparing the financial regulatory structures in Hong Kong, Mainland China, the UK and the US and the core principles of the BIS, the IOSCO and the IAIS, this article attempts to fill in the above research gap to some extent.

When a State becomes the contracting parties to multiple FTAs concurrently, the State has to face serious challenges since all these different FTAs present different rules in certain segments of the agreements. All the participants are thus forced to walk a tightrope as one government is now supposed to play by many different playbooks. It is time to understand the real impact of the FTAs on the current trade regime, so that the States can take an informed decision when they devise their respective FTAs. Given the continued failure to complete the deals in the Doha Development Agenda, it is necessary that the States purport to negotiate and conclude bilateral or regional trade agreements with like-minded countries, and apply new rules of trade through such agreements. But the consequence of such regional experiments of fragmented rules should not be forgotten, in particular, concerning the long-term impact on the multilateralism. This article argues that the real impact of FTAs, particularly multilateral ones, does not lie in mere preferential tariff concessions, but rather gradual dismantling of multilateralism through incorporation of fragmented rules of trade. In this respect, China’s role is critical in devising and implementing FTAs in a way that can also help preserve the multilateralism.

Trademark law is but part of competition law. With a good faith clause, the new Chinese trademark law moves closer to competition law. The new law is more liberal to the registrable signs with more non-traditional signs such as sound marks and flora in the family of registrable signs. Some kind of bona fide prior use of trademark is respected and the requirement of trademark use is strengthened in the new law. The likelihood of confusion has been absorbed in the new law as the prerequisites trademark infringement other than using identical marks on identical goods or services. In the new law, a clause against using well-known trademarks as tool to promoting products is formulated. Changes on the procedures of oppositions to trademarks witness the efforts to simplify the examination of trademarks. The stronger protection efforts such as punitive damages in the new law will go against trademark infringement.

The Framework Agreement for the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area was initiated in 2002. It is the first ASEAN Plus pattern free trade agreement in East Asia. To understand the cultural and historical bonds between China and Southeast Asian States, and contemporary Chinese regional political economy in building the ACFTA, this paper reviews the tributary trade and ancient Chinese diplomacy between China and the neighboring States. The primary purpose of this research is to show how the ACFTA is in the interests of all parties in the course of China’s fast economic and political growth. The following article highlights the ACFTA provisions by examining trading agreements in goods, services and investment in the context of the corresponding WTO provisions. In the end, it suggests the possible resolutions for achieving a win–win and interdependent ASEAN–China Free Trade Area.

Over its 20 years of practice, the Appellate Body gradually established a de facto stare decisis rule similar to that exists in common law system. Given the tight time constraint as provided in the DSU for an appeal process, the Appellate Body may face a situation where there is no sufficient time available for it to consider thoroughly all the elements for the interpretation of a provision, especially arguments or evidence of law that have not been raised even by the parties nor by the panel. If the issue whether Article XX of GATT 1994 can be invoked by China to justify a violation of paragraph 11.3 of its Accession Protocol had been decided in China-Raw Materials, can this issue be reopened and assessed again in China-Rare Earths? The author explored these two cases in light of the relevant WTO precedents as well as the common law thinking. This article concludes that it is both necessary and technically feasible to correct certain previous interpretation. Such a correction will contribute to further improvement in the clarification and interpretation of the covered agreements and accession protocols; hence give more confidence to Members that their rights and obligations under the treaty can be well preserved by a system with a built-in self-correction mechanism.

Tokyo trial experienced a judgment circumscribed for a long period for publication during allied occupation years. This is Justice Pal’s dissenting judgment at the Tokyo trial; endeavored to seek Justice in a different way, justified ‘aggression’ not only considering subjective ends, rather extends beyond that. The present paper does not intend to justify the judgment which exceeds author’s competence, but also tries to extract the notion of aggression where Justice Radhabinod Pal is experimental. Where all acts are not act of aggression, the main concern is to segregate the concept of act of war and the act of aggression. Assertion becomes crucial when certain use of force can be legitimized under sovereign right of self-defense. This paper tends to clarify these ambiguities concerning the notion of aggression relying on Justice Pal’s opinion. Firstly, a progressive attempt has been made to identify the extent of use of force under sovereign right of self-defense, overriding that extent may tantamount to aggression. Then possible means have been drawn to limit the concept of aggression. Finally, the paper would shed brief light on the comparison of Justice Pal’s dissenting opinion with contemporaneous legal framework predominantly concerning the notion of aggression.

Maritime boundary issues have become a constraint in the relations between Indonesia and its neighboring countries, including Malaysia. One of the pending issues regarding the overlapping maritime boundary which is not yet to be resolved is the Ambalat area. The primary purpose of this research is to suggest possible senarioa to resolve the maritime delimitation dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia around Ambalt peacefully under international law. This article is prepared to explore all available ways for the peaceful settlement on Ambalat issue.The author will examine the diplomatic channel, ASEAN Way dispute settlement mechanism, adjudication process (litigation and arbitration), and dispute settlement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He will also epropose other innovative approach, such like Joint Development Zone. The result of such examination can be used as considerations for the way forward.

Malaysia has asserted sovereign rights over the ND6 and ND7 sea blocks, which partially overlap with the Ambalat and East Ambalat sea blocks. Indonesia has also asserted sovereign rights over there. This article argues the validity of Malaysia’s claim over the ND6 and ND7 sea blocks by virtue of the Pulau Ligitan dan Pulau Sipadan case in which the International Court of Justice found that the 4°10′ N parallel mentioned in the 1891 Convention between Great Britain and the Netherlands Defining Boundaries in Borneo terminated on the east coast of Sebatik and did not extend seawards. This article finds that Malaysia may use the Sipadan and Ligitan Islands as a basis to assert sovereign rights over the ND6 and ND7 sea blocks. The authors also highlights several other documents including a 1954 British declaration and bilateral treaties between Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Svalbard Treaty, one of the few inter-governmental treaties in the Arctic area, has drawn global attention. Currently, the dispute focuses mainly on its scope of applicability. Different interpretations of the issue, directly affect each contracting party’s interests in Svalbard, intensifying its debate. China signed the Svalbard Treaty on July 1, 1925, becoming one of its first contracting parties. China has attached great importance to non-discriminatory rights under the treaty, such as scientific research, resource exploitation, fishing, hunting and commercial activities, etc. Therefore, the final determination of the treaty’s applicable scope has a profoundly direct impact on China’s interests in the Arctic area. This research is to analyze the Chinese position on the Svalbard Treaty and to demonstrate the legitimacy of China’s viewpoint from a treaty interpretation perspective.

The primary purpose of this research is to analyze the formation of international custom of medieval East Asia under the system of the Great Ming Code. It focuses on Korea’s policies regarding Japanese crimes in the fifteenth century. This study particularly investigates how the Great Ming Code affected the East Asian system of order. We find that Confucianism, which was the basis for the Great Ming Code, had a great influence on the formation of customs in East Asia in such areas as the establishment of patriarchal authority, filial piety, and the five punishments system. This study also investigates how etiquette, which served as a foundation for diplomatic regulations, affected Korea-Japan relations during the fifteenth century. It also analyzes Joseon (Korea)’s control policies against illegal acts committed by the Japanese, who tried to enter Joseon for economic gain, from the perspective of the Great Ming Code.

Self-defence has long been understood as an inherent right of a State when it is militarily attacked by another State. After September 11 attacks, however, there have been attempts to reinterpret the meaning of ‘armed attack’ under Article 51 of the UN Charter to include attacks by terrorists - non-State actors. This paper critically examines the legal and policy considerations that promote a right of self-defence against terrorists by means of thoroughly analyzing the text of the UN Charter, State practice and the jurisprudence of the ICJ. The paper finds that a terrorist attack as such may not be an armed attack within the meaning of Article 51 of the Charter unless it is an act of a State or directly imputable to a State and is on a large scale with substantial effects. The paper concludes that unilateral use of force against a State in the name of self-defence is not the correct way of combating terrorism and that there are effective alternatives such as addressing the root causes of terrorism, resorting to law enforcement mechanisms or coercive countermeasures, and strengthening multilateralism.