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In November 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court released Guiding Case No. 235 to illustrate its new, proactive approach to recognizing and enforcing foreign judgments.Read more
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The coming into effect of China’s Foreign State Immunity Law at the beginning of 2024 has sparked concerns about how the Chinese judiciary will subject foreign states to the Chinese legal system because the law represents China’s transition from affording foreign states “absolute immunity” in Chinese courts to restricting the immunity to certain types of lawsuits. Amidst these concerns, the Supreme People’s Court just released a Guiding Case to illustrate its new, proactive approach to recognizing and enforcing foreign judgments. This approach not only evokes more optimism about the Chinese judiciary, but also increases the capacity of Chinese courts to help China revive its economy in 2025 and beyond by increasing the confidence of foreign parties in China’s willingness to recognize and enforce foreign judgments.Read more
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Maliz Ong, Black and White Brick Wall (Publicdomainpictures.net)
In 2018, I co-authored an article titled Propagation of a Case Culture in China and Potentially Beyond. Based on an analysis of how 96 Guiding Cases, de facto binding cases released by China’s Supreme People’s Court available at the time, had been referenced in 1,281 subsequent cases decided by courts across the country, my co-authors and I drew this conclusion: “the preliminary success of [Guiding Cases] seems to have provided fertile ground for the propagation of a case culture in China and, given the country’s eagerness to increase its presence around the world, this culture may have a chance to be propagated elsewhere.” Just such an opportunity for China to propagate a culture of applying case-based legal reasoning in the BRICS arose in mid-June.Read more
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China’s reduction of the reserve requirement ratio for all banks beginning from February 5 is expected to help revive the economy by injecting more cash into the banking system. Another measure that is likely to help improve China’s economy but seems to have drawn little attention outside the legal community is the release of a set of revised rules to implement China’s Patent Law. If applied effectively, these revised rules have the potential to strengthen China’s patent protection mechanism, making the country more appealing to foreign investors.Read more
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The Supreme People’s Court has established an impressive framework to facilitate the use of Guiding Cases but has not given clear guidance on how to handle inconsistent applications of a Guiding Case by Chinese courts. In this article, the authors analyze the inconsistent applications of Guiding Case No. 60 by several important courts in China, discuss potential problems associated with such inconsistency, and propose solutions to these problems.Read more
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The Supreme People’s Court’s issuance of 26 new Guiding Cases, China’s de facto binding precedents, during the last few weeks of 2022 brought the total number of these cases issued in the entire year to 33, a record-high number that has only been matched in 2019. A comparison of Guiding Cases released before and after 2019 shows positive developments and, as explained in this article, gives optimism for 2023.Read more
Last Sunday, Dr. Mei Gechlik delivered a keynote speech titled Zhejiang, Case Guidance, and China’s Global Economic Development at a conference held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. The speech turned out to be timely as on the same day, a Chinese Communist Party leader visited Alibaba, the e-commerce giant headquartered in Zhejiang. The visit not only marked the first of this type since Alibaba faced serious regulatory investigations, but also occurred only two days after President Xi Jinping chaired the country’s economic working conference, at which China’s “platform enterprises” (e.g., Alibaba) were called upon to “show their talents in leading [the country’s] development, job creation, and international competition”.Read more
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U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent meeting with Chinese President XI Jinping has eased the growing tension between the two countries, giving rise to hope that the difficult Taiwan issue will be unlikely to trigger conflict in the near future. This development is in line with the mainstream stance taken by people in Taiwan. The majority of respondents to surveys conducted from 1994 to 2022 have expressed their wish to see Taiwan (a) maintain the status quo and then decide the future at a later date; or (b) maintain the status quo indefinitely. What does this signal to leaders in Beijing? What can be done in the interim?Read more
Image: George Hodan, Tropical Sea Underwater With Corals (Publicdomainpictures.net)
In his recent speech, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken clearly stated that China is “integral” to the United States’s ability to solve the climate crisis. He urged China to join the United States in “accelerating the pace” of their shared efforts. Ecosystems with healthy populations of native plants and animals help address climate challenges. Yet many ecosystems have been adversely affected by the loss of biodiversity. How does China tackle this loss?Read more
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In December 2021, the Supreme People’s Court of China released Guiding Case No. 177. The Guiding Case illustrates how China performs its obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to protect marine biodiversity.Read more
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Three decades ago, China’s decision to develop a “socialist market economy” helped bolster foreign investors’ confidence. Today, if China shows similar determination to bring about positive changes in crucial areas, foreign investors will have strong reasons for feeling optimistic about the Chinese market. One crucial area is the regulation of China’s stock market. China does have regulatory tools to combat irregularities in the stock market. Have these tools been used well? Read more
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Amid foreign businesses’ growing concerns about COVID restrictions, China’s five-year intellectual property plan may help instill confidence. If implemented well, the plan will help China establish a strong intellectual property protection mechanism that will facilitate the country’s post-COVID economic recovery. How can the plan be implemented well?Read more
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Lightspring (Shutterstock.com)
Justice delayed is justice denied. The prompt delivery of judgments is particularly important in cases involving infringement of intellectual property rights, where holders of these rights need to minimize their losses by stopping the infringement swiftly. China does offer a solution. How does it work? Read more
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The highest court in a province in China recently ordered a retrial of a dispute because lower-level courts handling the dispute failed to discuss in their reasoning a relevant Guiding Case cited by a party as similar to the dispute. This ruling is expected to bring about positive changes to the judicial practice of using Guiding Cases in that province. Why? Will this ruling be a game changer for the rest of the country?Read more
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How can the development of China’s Case Guidance System promote the country’s judicial protection of intellectual property rights, helping achieve the goals set forth in the Plan for the Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in People’s Courts (2021-2025)?Read more
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In December 2019, the Supreme People’s Court of China released Guiding Case No. 115. Four months later, in April 2020, the second-instance judgment upon which this Guiding Case is based was selected by the Supreme People’s Court as one of the “Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases of Chinese Courts in 2019”. Why is this case so important? It is all related to the concepts of “act preservation” and “functional features” of inventions.Read more
This piece describes how the release of Typical Cases related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2015 ultimately led Dr. Mei Gechlik to make a suggestion at a 2018 international forum organized by the Chinese government […].Read more
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In February 2019, the Supreme People’s Court of China released Guiding Case No. 109 and five other Guiding Cases to illustrate how Chinese courts handled issues related to the country’s Belt and Road Initiative. Guiding Case No. 109 specifically shows the Supreme People’s Court’s firm adherence to legal rules and principles that protect the value of the “payment on demand” system of independent guarantees.Read more
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Before the release of Guiding Case No. 100, the Supreme People’s Court of China released Guiding Case No. 92 to establish this principle: in a case involving infringement of rights to a new plant variety, when the related DNA fingerprinting test result cannot provide a clear answer, the allegedly infringing party, i.e., the defendant, has the burden to prove that the allegedly infringing plant is different from the plant for which variety rights have been granted. Guiding Case No. 100 shows what the defendant can do to meet this burden of proof.Read more
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Guiding Case No. 160 addresses a fundamental issue: when rights to a new plant variety are granted, what falls within the scope of protection? According to China’s legislation, propagation materials of the plant for which variety rights have been granted are clearly protected. Yet, what are “propagation materials”? Unfortunately, no definition can be found in China’s legislation. Guiding Case No. 160 fills the legal gap by setting the criteria for such determination.Read more
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