Owing to the lack of consensus in formal negotiations, unilateral statements do not create legal obligations on states. Thus, a unilateral statement is not considered a source of international law under Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. In practice, however, these statements can be legally binding on the states making them and play an important role in the development of international law. The paper aims to examine the characteristics of unilateral declarations and statements in international law and address the Vietnam’s position over the legal effects of the Diplomatic Note 1958 with special references to the South China Sea dispute. This paper will analyze the characteristics and significance of unilateral statements in international law, and argue the conditions for legal binding force. Finally, this paper will provide an in-depth clarification on Vietnamese position on the legal effect of the Diplomatic Note 1958.

Today, the question on the legal instruments of international organisations that impose direct sanctions on individuals and legal entities have surfaced, such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions. States are obliged to implement the UNSC Resolutions but would face difficulties in this course. The UNSC’s coercive approach rubs international security against democratic legitimacy, especially when the Resolutions violate due process of law, principle of legality and human rights. To date, Indonesia’s stance on international law (including UNSC Resolutions) under its legal system remains unclear. This study analyses the implementation of the UNSC Resolutions in Indonesia, which has no uniformity without a UN Act. The case of North Korean vessel, MV Wise Honest, highlights the growing confusion in Indonesia because violation of the UNSC Resolutions has not been governed. Conclusively, Indonesia needs to enact a UN Act to provide legal certainty in the implementation of the UNSC Resolutions.

Article 69(7) of the International Criminal Court Statute develops a specific rule to exclude evidence and thus ensure evidentiary reliability and procedural integrity before its proceedings. China has introduced the exclusionary rule of illegally obtained evidence that places an overriding priority on pursuing factual accuracy, because the rule has been devised and applied primarily for the sake of preventing miscarriages of justice and bolstering governmental integrity. A political imperative for truth makes the rule incompatible with the existing institutional environment. The ICC’s rule and practice illuminates the importance of neither assuming the excellence of the rule nor borrowing the rule without modification, but of exploring the rule that is based upon one’s own practical experience, institutional structure, and political powers. This article embraces the room for flexibility, experimentation, and adaptation that can contribute to a healthy scheme for legal transplant and law reform.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) is the oldest active international organization with legal capacity in the progressive unification of Private International Law (PIL). The HCCH aims to progressively unify PIL to address legal problems in the form of universal regulations. Thailand is aware of the significance and importance of co-operation in PIL, as shown by the accession of Thailand to the HCCH in 2021. This article will examine Thailand’s situation with a technique employed by Charles Dickens in his heartwarming story, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which examined one character’s experience with reference to events in the past, the present, and the future. The past will be examined through the genealogy of PIL and the experience of Thailand before joining the HCCH. The present will address the status of Thailand in the HCCH. The future will be discussed as suggestions for Thailand after becoming a Member of the HCCH.

In a region fraught with tensions and conflicts, the South China Sea Arbitral Award Case (Case) concerned maritime conflicts between the Philippines and China, an inter-State, non-consensual, ex-parte arbitration under Annex VII of the UN Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). The Case went against China. The Annex VII Tribunal decision of first and last instance, was final and without appeal. However, to the authors, the Case drew attention to the inherently unfair provisions of an exparte hearing under Annex VII that violates the principle of natural justice and casts uncertainty on the role and future of mandatory conciliation under the UNCLOS. These omissions are addressed here. Noting these omissions and limitations, to restore regional goodwill, ameliorate conflicts and tensions, and promote dispute settlement, a solution in mandatory conciliation is proposed -“A Partnership in Comity and Conciliation for the South China Sea”- with its provenance rooted in international law.

Since the Japanese government recently unveiled a plan to release radioactive water into the ocean, the neighbouring countries have expressed concerns. In particular, certain environmental groups claimed that the execution of this operation would have a significant impact on the marine environment in the region. In light of significant potential risks, this article argues that such an operation is likely to trigger an international dispute at an international court or tribunal for several reasons. Accordingly, this article would like to explore the highly likely international litigation. First, the background of this potential international litigation, including the reasons why the operation may end up at an international court or tribunal are addressed. Subsequently, certain legal and factual issues that are expected to be contested between the parties at the court or tribunal are discussed. Finally, this article discusses some of the expected outcomes of this likely international litigation, including reparation.

As a semi-enclosed sea, the Yellow Sea is shared by costal states such as China, South Korea and North Korea which have common interests in this maritime area. This situation requires special attention and mutual efforts for the protection and preservation of the coastal waters and marine ecosystem. The Yellow Sea contains many shipping routes, and it is potentially exposed to the risks of vessel-source pollution. This research has examined how the Yellow Sea states have implemented the International Maritime Organisation conventions relating to vessel-source pollution at the domestic level through a comparative legal study. The objective of this research is to understand current national laws of the Yellow Sea states dealing with the prevention of vessel-source pollution and to emphasize the necessity of regional efforts and cooperation to implement global regulatory instruments in order to protect and preserve the marine environment from the threats of international shipping activities.

After the 2008 global financial crisis, China’s banks fled the bogs far better than their counterparties in Europe, the US and Japan. China has achieved outstanding success in modernizing its banking sector and financial markets. The theory of law and finance generally acknowledges a close correlation between vibrant financial growth and a function of legal and regulatory system. But this theory may not apply to China. A group of scholars attributes China’s success to its top-down Party-state model of “rule by law” scheme. This book intends to thoroughly examine China’s financial regulatory system in the first decade after the global financial crisis, and provide insights to China’s market liberalization and economic development. This author indicates that China’s current regulatory system on financial market is still restrictive and mainly government-dominated. To further promote the development of financial markets and market economy, more market-led reforms to regulatory system and the expansion of the markets are needed.

The Biden administration has moved to refocus the US trade policy on China, acting to promote competition but not thoughtless confrontation. Some actions were strong right out of the gate; that should not have been so surprising, but it still was. If anything, the recently concluded G-7 meeting in Cornwall and the subsequent US-EU summit in Brussels indicate that the Biden administration intends to take a stronger and a more multilateral and diplomatic approach to confront China. This approach was further supported by the US allies at the recent NATO meeting in Brussels. The administration is stressing cooperation with allies and competition with China. Biden’s recent diplomacy demonstrates his overriding preoccupation with China. Moving away from Trump’s dysfunctional and disastrous unilateral measures of confrontation with all can only help stabilize the US-China relations and rebuild the WTO, hopefully.

Pakistan is host to the different indigenous peoples’ groups such as “Koochis,” “Rebari,” “Bakarwal,” “Kehal,” “Jogi,” “Kabootra,” “Sanyasi,” and the most famous “Kalash.” By providing them with a proper legal mechanism for the fortification of their inherited resources, culture expressions and outdated information under a thorough intellectual property framework, Pakistan can preserve the already declining population of indigenous people and create better livelihood opportunities for them. They form at present nondominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories and ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system. Many international instruments have been in operation to support their endeavors. They make up to 15 percent of the extreme poor population of the world. Hence there is an urgency to develop laws for them.

The regulation of digital financial assets has been a topic of discussion for many countries over the last decade. China is among the world leaders in the digitalization and blockchain technologies. Under the “one country, two systems,” two different approaches to the digital financial assets have been implemented in the PRC. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated many investors to diversify their investment portfolios to include digital financial assets, the People’s Bank of China has not changed its prohibitive position on tokens and cryptocurrencies and even launched a campaign against miners and crypto exchanges. Macau and Taiwan have also prohibited initial coin offerings and the transfer of cryptocurrencies due to the risks of money laundering connected with the citizens of mainland China. Macau, Taiwan, and the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong have implemented less stringent regulations of digital financial assets. Comparative analysis demonstrates that Hong Kong acts as an intermediary for China to the digital financial assets.

The Chinese Marriage Law 2001 stipulates two kinds of divorce: registered divorce and litigated divorce. In this paper, the different grounds and procedures related to these two types of divorce will be examined and the judicial statistics and empirical experience about the legal system of grounds for divorce in practice will be explored. Compared to litigated divorce, the easier registered divorce predominates in terms of number. While the sole legal requirement for litigated divorce is that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, this breakdown needs to be evidenced by specific facts. The facts listed in Marriage Law 2001 are mostly fault-based. However, they are not in line with the situation in practice and increase the difficulty of litigated divorce. The legislative reform for the legal grounds for divorce in the Chinese Civil Code (2021) has been undergone in order to strike a balance between protecting people’s autonomy to divorce and assisting people to make divorce decisions.

As Europe is a weaker actor mainly due to her digital underdevelopment, the EU is settling on the regulatory side of digital sovereignty. The article is to comparatively analyze the European and Chinese AI ethical guidelines considering the strategic and normative scope of the guidelines as well as their implications on the legal frameworks of AI both in Europe and China. In this field, the most important initiative in the EU was carried on by the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, which, in 2019, released the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI,” a catalogue of principles as well as operative measures to achieve Trustworthy AI. In China, instead, the most important initiative was the “Beijing AI Principles” released in 2019 by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, and the “Principles to Develop Responsible AI for the New Generation Artificial Intelligence: Developing Responsible Artificial Intelligence” released in 2019 by the New Generation AI Governance Expert Committee.

The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is such a means to an end of further economic development and wider social political goals. With major protective provisions of expropriation against compensation, fair and equitable treatment, national treatment, most-favored-nation treatment, full protection and security and umbrella clause, it helps establish a predictable, transparent, and enforceable legal regime to protect foreign investors’ legitimate expectations and lawful investment. As China intends to attract foreign investments by offering a stable business operation environment, its signing a large number of BITs and FTAs may help reduce political and socio-economic risks, which give states, businesses, and individuals the confidence to work in a coordinated manner. The economic development goal, rule of law strategy, tense US-China relations, ideology of multilateralism and community of common destiny, all add up to China’s inclination to incremental but effective ISDS reform.

The EU, China, and other WTO members recently released their concluded MPIA with its Annexes I and II as a temporary arrangement to deal with the appeals of panel rulings before the Appellate Body resumes its operation. The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is a complete unit with unique features and inherent logic. Although this arrangement maintains the two-tier process with arbitration to replace the appellate review, there is a fundamental difference between them, which is embodied not only in the dispute settlement process but also in the implementation of the rulings. The challenges that the WTO dispute settlement mechanism encounters are not limited to those procedural issues, but they are also connected with the substantive rules, with which the procedural issues should be jointly resolved. This is the correct way to deal with the current challenges and to reform the multilateral trade regime.

British colonial policies have led to stratified societies all over the world and America is no exception. But America is unique in transiting to an equal society and constructing the legal framework to achieve a fair society, even though not completely successful. What distinguishes America from other British colonies is the tradition of rule of law. Perhaps this tradition is also the most priceless heritage that the Britain left for America. Currently, racial discrimination and racial equality protests spread across America. This book provides valuable insights for understanding the divided America.

Criticism has erupted around the world over the paper “Contracting for sex in the Pacific War” written by Mark Ramseyer, a Mitsubishi professor at Harvard University Law School. Ramseyer insists tha “comfort women” by Japanese imperial military made “credible contracts” with recruiters regardless of the Japanese government or the Japanese military. Ramseyer further insists that the “comfort women” were certified prostitutes. However, the Japanese government selected recruiters secretly and provided them with convenience in mobilizing women. Recruiters have deceived women, mainly by job fraud, into kidnapping them to military brothels. The recruiters signed with Japanese women as barmaids (shakuhu), meaning women who served drinks. However, the Japanese military brothels were prohibited from drinking. Almost Korean women were illiterate in 1940’s, so recruiters did not make contract papers with them. It was very easy to deceive Korean women to make sexual slaves of Japanese military. The surviving Japanese military’s surgeon or soldiers testified that Korean “comfort women” had been sexual slaves.

Bilateral agreements are not the optimal solution to address modern challenges regarding the resolution of investment disputes. The time has come for multilateral agreements to define a clear procedure for resolving investment disputes and the formation of arbitration for these purposes. On November 15, 2020, ASEAN members and five regional partners signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), arguably the largest free trade agreement in history. Although the RCEP agreement defines the basic principles of legal protection of investments, it does not contain a procedure for settling disputes directly between investors and parties to the agreement, i.e., Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), but rather postpones the issue for future negotiations. Nevertheless, a majority of countries understand the importance of investment protection and have significant outward FDI that will support stronger ISDS protections within a multilateral framework. Therefore, it is recommended that in the near future member countries will come to an agreement and adopt appropriate amendments to the RCEP regarding ISDS.

The emergence of the construction and operation of a small satellite constellation in Low Earth orbit (LEO) to beam high-speed Internet to all parts of the world is a relatively new development in the use of outer space. States, international intergovernmental organizations, and private companies plan to deploy small satellites into Earth’s orbit because this effort is inexpensive and expandable, especially in the area of commercial activities. This movement will provide an essential tool to achieve sustainable development goals, especially for developing countries. However, it could also bring legal challenges because there is now a lack of binding regulations regarding the increasing risks of orbital collision, the proliferation of space debris, the satellite network service, and the rational, efficient, and economical use of a radio frequency allocation and the harmful interference caused by small satellite constellations in LEO. These issues could have an impact on the long-term sustainability of space activities.