This Week in Asian Law

December 12-18

China

  • The southeastern province of Yunnan recently passed an AIDS-prevention regulation that authorizes medical institutions to inform the spouse or sex partner of someone found to be HIV-positive if the infected person fails to do so. In this article, legal experts respond to concerns about whether the regulation violates privacy rights. (in Chinese)

  • China’s Supreme People's Court has appointed four senior African legal experts to a 24-member Expert Committee of the China International Commercial Court, which hears international commercial disputes related to the Belt and Road Initiative. Matthew Erie, an associate professor at the University of Oxford said the move “sends a strong signal that China’s new outward-looking court is inclusive” in an effort to offer alternatives to international dispute resolution options.

  • China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) published a 28-article document to guide prosecutors as they to implement the “plea for leniency” system. The document was issued in response to the opinions of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress when it reviewed an earlier SPP report on the implementation of the system. The document provides guidance about protecting the rights of defendants, exercising prosecutorial discretion, enhancing communication with defense lawyers, improving prosecution sentencing suggestions, and so on. (in Chinese)

  • The China Law Society published its Annual Report on China’s Construction of Rule of Law for 2019. The 12-part report addresses achievements and problems with respect to rule of law in the fields of legislation, supervision, political and judicial reform, administration, adjudication, human rights protection, intellectual property protection, ecological protection, legal education, research and publicity, etc., as well as international cooperation and communication. (in Chinese)

  • OutRight Action International has issued a report exploring the relationship between law and the lives of LGBT people in China, and the Chinese LGBT movement’s efforts to make law a force for greater equality rather than one that entrenches stigma. The report, titled “Precarious Progress: Advocacy for the Human Rights of LGBT People in China,” is written by Darius Longarino a China scholar based at the Paul Tsai China Center of Yale Law School.

  • Since the 2012 Criminal Procedure Law legalized the police practice of detaining suspects in locations other than their homes or official detention centers (known as “residential surveillance in a designated location” or RSDL), China has been criticized by U.N. human rights experts for allowing what amounts to a form of incommunicado detention. The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group here responds to a recent defense of RSDL by the Chinese government. Separately, Zhu Yonghui, a Chinese defense lawyer at King and Capital Law Firm, also urged authorities to abolish RSDL in remarks made at a recent lawyers forum. (in Chinese)

  • A Tianjin man, Yang Songfa, who spent 19 years behind bars for an intentional homicide that he did not commit, was exonerated this week. The Tianjin High People’s Court overturned the original conviction and suspended death sentence and acquitted him after a retrial found insufficient evidence to support his conviction 17 years ago. Yang’s conviction was based on his coerced confession after a 48-hour interrogation and questionable physical evidence.

  • The Chinese Communist Party’s recently released Implementation Outline for the Establishment of a Rule of Law-Based Society (2020-2025) has been translated into English by China Law Translate, which also wrote its own Highlights of the Outline.

  • Children who are sexually abused face special obstacles in persuading the courts to grant damages for mental and psychological injuries, according to Beijing’s Qianqian Law Firm, which specializes in such cases. Researchers at the firm recently analyzed 184 child sexual abuse verdicts and shared their findings.

Hong Kong

Japan

Koreas

  • Vice Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Kyung-sun said some types of hate speech are already punishable under existing South Korean laws. She spoke at an online briefing about a ministry-sponsored bill that would explicitly ban hate speech against particular cultures, ethnic groups, and countries. The bill lacks a punishment clause, but the minister said serious levels of hate speech may already be deemed in violation of a criminal code ban on insults, and may be punished by fines or even prison time.

  • South Korea’s legislature has amended the Law on the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act to criminalize sending anti-government leaflets and propaganda into North Korea. Such actions are now punishable by up to three years in jail or a fine of nearly $30,000. The ban has sparked widespread criticism in Korea and internationally as likely to have a chilling effect on access to information and freedom of speech. Korean activists have vowed to defy the law and fight it in court.

  • North Korea has adopted a new law against “reactionary thoughts” that strengthens the state’s controls over the flow of information both domestically and across the border. The law reportedly defines a wide range of acts as illegal, including: listening to, recording or distributing foreign radio radio broadcasts; importing and distributing “impure” foreign recordings, video content, books, or other published materials; and copying or distributing music unapproved by the state. Early this year, North Korean authorities issued an order to intensify the management of electronic devices in order to stop information flow in and out of the country. 

  • South Korea’s National Labor Relations Commission has ruled that the Korea National Ballet was unfair when it dismissed a dancer who violated the company’s self-quarantine rule, and ordered the troupe to reinstate him. While acknowledging that the dancer violated his obligations to the dance company by traveling abroad during the home-quarantine period, the commission said the dance company abused its disciplinary power because the dancer did not violate the government’s quarantine rules. The ballet company is challenging the decision in court.

  • The ruling Democratic Party of Korea has proposed a “Prosecutor Appointment Reform Act” requiring prosecutor appointees to have at least 5-year legal experience. It is the latest in a series of controversial changes to the country’s prosecutorial system being proposed by the ruling party against strong opposition from other parties. (in Korean)

  • The Korean Bar Association held an online discussion about how to implement and improve the right of suspects to take notes during their own investigation and interrogation. The “self-defense notes,” a notebook that allows suspects to record information while being investigated by the police and prosecution agencies, is an innovation of the Seoul Bar Association in collaboration with the National Police Agency, and has been adopted around the country. Although criminal suspects have the right to a lawyer, in practice many lack representation. Allowing suspects to take their own notes is viewed as a means of protecting their rights. (in Korean)

Taiwan