February 20-26
China
The National People’s Congress has launched a National Database of Laws and Regulations (国家法律法规数据库). The NPC Observer provides this detailed user guide/review of the new database.
The Supreme People’s Court issued a guiding opinion on integrating socialist core values into judgments. It encourages judges to apply socialist core values when interpreting the law and reasoning within the legal framework in six types of cases. (in Chinese)
Zhang Jun, prosecutor-general of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, held a roundtable discussion with representatives of local judges, prosecutors, police officers, lawyers, and law professors during a research trip to Henan Province and responded to five major concerns about China’s “plea for leniency” system. (in Chinese)
The prosecutors’ office in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, released a provisional regulation that requires prosecutors to video record the negotiation process in “plea for leniency” cases and to play the recording in court if the plea agreement is challenged. The regulation, the first of its kind in Zhejiang, aims to standardize the new procedure and ensure that guilty pleas are genuine and voluntary. (in Chinese)
A Beijing district court ordered a divorcing husband to pay his ex-wife RMB 50,000 RMB (about $7,730) in compensation for five years of unpaid housework in a landmark divorce case that quickly generated massive debate on social media. Under China’s new Civil Code that came into effect on January 1, divorcing spouses have the right to request compensation if they have borne disproportionate responsibility for child rearing or household work. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has estimated that Chinese women spend nearly four hours each day doing unpaid labor at home, 2.5 times as much as men.
China’s National Health Commission is defending the official ban on freezing the eggs of single women, saying that such technologies bring health risks, could give women false hope, and should follow strict ethical rules. Its statement was made in response to a proposal by a member of the National Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that single women be given access to assisted reproductive technologies. There is no barrier to single men freezing their sperm. In 2019, a woman sued a Beijing hospital for refusing to freeze her eggs because she was unmarried; the court has yet to issue its verdict.
Hong Kong
Chief Executive Carrie Lam said it is “crystal clear” that Beijing needs to reform Hong Kong’s electoral system, one day after China’s top official for the city signaled major changes are coming.
Hong Kong will begin requiring district councillors to take an oath swearing to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the government. Those who violate their oaths will be barred from election for five years.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam confirmed that the Hong Kong government is considering outlawing insults to police and other public officials, but said it is not a government priority during the current term of the Legislative Council. She said that any legislation would need to strike a “delicate” balance between protecting freedom of speech and protecting public officers.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam has accepted the recommendation of the chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal to offer new three-year terms to three non-permanent judges on the court from other common law jurisdictions. The new terms begin March 1, 2021. The three are: Justices Murray Gleeson, David Neuberger, and Robert Walker.
Japan
Increasing concern is being raised by Japanese officials that China’s new Coast Guard Law is escalating tensions around the Senkaku Islands, which China claims and calls the Diaoyu Islands. The law took effect February 1. Some Japanese lawmakers have called for new legislation to handle situations that may exceed the capacities of the police or Japanese Coast Guard.
The Tokyo High Court has ordered the government to take partial responsibility for damage caused by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. The court overturned a lower court verdict and ordered the government and the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to pay damages of $2.63 million to 43 people who had to evacuate from their hometowns. It marked the third high court ruling among 30 similar lawsuits filed across the country, and the second in which both the state and the utility were ordered to pay damages over radioactive contamination following the meltdowns at the plant.
Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd., a credit research firm in Japan, released a survey result showing that personal information was compromised or lost at a total of 88 publicly traded companies and their subsidiaries in Japan in 2020, the highest number since the collection of such data began in 2012. According to the Japan Times, many companies have been rushing to promote digitalization and remote work without taking sufficient security measures.
Tamayo Marukawa, Japan’s minister in charge of women’s empowerment and gender equality, acknowledged that she signed a document opposing allowing married couples to use separate surnames. One argument made in the document is that separate surnames could result in the collapse of the social system. Japan's Civil Code requires a married couple to share a surname. The burden has typically fallen on women to change their names after marriage.
The Supreme Court of Japan ruled that the Naha City government violated the constitutional separation of politics and religion by not collecting rent from a Confucian temple located on public land. It was the third time the Supreme Court’s Grand Bench has declared a government action as unconstitutional in connection with religion. The previous two decisions involved Shinto shrines.
Koreas
A North Korean company has a sued a South Korean company in Seoul Central District Court to collect $4.7 million that it said it is owed for a shipment of zinc. The Korea Herald, which reported the lawsuit, said it was filed in 2019 and is a rare legal battle between businesses from the two Koreas. It said the names of the parties were not available, but that the North Korean company is affiliated with Pyongyang’s national economic cooperation federation.
South Korea's parliament on February 26 ratified three International Labor Organization conventions, overcoming longstanding objections from businesses and conservative politicians. The conventions deal with forced labor, freedom of association and the right to organize, and the right to organize and collective bargaining, respectively.
Doctors in South Korea have threatened to strike to protest legislation that would revoke the licenses of doctors who are convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison. The strike sparked fears that the country’s coronavirus vaccination drive, which begins this week, could be disrupted.
Following a series of fatal child abuse cases that shocked South Korea, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee passed a bill providing for stiffer punishment when child abuse results in the victim’s death.
South Korea’s Intellectual Property Office is developing policies to protect inventions produced by artificial intelligence. The office said that exclusive rights for AI-created inventions will be granted only when under the control of a human workforce, and property rights for virtual software products like a virtual keyboard will also be established.
More South Korean sports and entertainment celebrities are being publicly accused of having bullied classmates when they were in school. Experts say the accusations are a way of seeking “public punishment” as the legal system has little to offer the victims of bullying. Most of those accused have denied being bullies. However, one professional volleyball play retired after acknowledging guilt and several entertainers have cancelled appearances.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has proposed revising the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Structural Improvement of the Financial Industry in order to strengthen banks’ readiness for financial crises. The revision would require banks to submit their recovery plans to the financial sector watchdog annually. It is proposed to take effect in July.
A bill from South Korea’s antitrust regulator aimed at governing dominant e-commerce platforms is still pending in the National Assembly due to a tug of war between the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and the Korea Communications Commission (KCC). The FTC said the new bill was designed to limit abuses of market power in the e-commerce industry and prevent contract issues that could jeopardize small and mid-sized enterprises. But the KCC says that laws related to e-commerce platforms fall under its jurisdiction and that the bill partly overlaps with the Telecommunications Business Act.
Taiwan
Taiwan’s fertility experts urged the legislature to legalize surrogacy so that Taiwanese who are unable to conceive no longer need to seek international surrogacy. A draft surrogacy law passed its first reading last May but has stalled due to unsettled issues regarding the rights of the child and biological mother. Surrogacy is currently illegal in Taiwan.
Academics in Taiwan called for stiffer penalties and even criminal charges against professors who take unauthorized grants from China. The Ministry of Education recently fined a National Taiwan University chemical engineering professor, Lee Duu-jong (李篤中), NT$300,000 (about $10,775) for leading research programs sponsored by China’s National Natural Science Foundation without approval from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education.
Legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan People’s Party, and the New Power Party expressed support for a climate action law that sets the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The Environmental Protection Administration has drafted a different version of a climate action law, but it is not expected to reach the legislature for months.
A Tainan judge was fined a year's salary by the Judicial Yuan's Disciplinary Court after repeatedly taking time off without leave. Judge Chu Chung-he (朱中和) was impeached by the Control Yuan a year ago for being absent during working hours. The Control Yuan surveilled Chu for 23 days in 2018 and 2019, and found that he was absent from work on 15 days. Chu sometimes went fishing.
A Cabinet official said on February 24 that a proposal from the Executive Yuan to establish a Ministry of Digital Development will be submitted to the Legislative Yuan during the current plenary session, which runs through May. The proposal is part of a Cabinet reform plan involving a draft amendment to the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan.
Vietnam
The ministries of pubic security of Vietnam and China convened their 7th meeting on national security, crime prevention and domestic social order and safety. Agencies of the two countries have cooperated in cracking down on drug-related crimes and human trafficking and will work together to prevent other transnational crimes such as terrorism and high-tech crimes.
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Phạm Bình Minh spoke at the 46th Regular Session of the United Nation Human Rights Council. He said Vietnam continues to put emphasis on protecting and promoting all human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Vietnamese people.
Ambassador Nguyễn Hồng Thao announced his plan to seek re-election to the International Law Commission (ILC) for its 2023-27 term. Ambassador Thao became the first Vietnamese ILC member in 2017. The 34-member body of experts is elected by the U.N. General Assembly every five years. He is among ten candidates standing for the new term from Asia-Pacific. The ILC election will take place in New York in November 2021.