June 18 - 24
China
The Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and four ministries jointly issued new guidelines for deciding when prison inmates should be allowed to temporarily serve their sentence outside of prison. The Opinions on Further Standardizing the Work of Granting Temporary Execution of Sentence Outside of Prison take effect on July 1, 2023. The Opinions provide new diagnostic and identification criteria for making the decision and adopt a hearing process for disputed applications.
The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress will convene from June 26 to 28 with eight bills on its tentative agenda. Four returning bills for further review include the drafts of the Barrier-Free Environments Development Law, Foreign Relations Law, Administrative Reconsideration Law, and Marine Environmental Protection Law. Four new bills submitted for review include drafts of the Patriotic Education Law, the Law on Ensuring Food Safety, a proposed decision to establish a new Standing Committee Delegates Affairs Commission, and a decision to designate a National Ecology Day.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate released a new set of three guiding cases involving financial crimes and addressing issues such disguised illegal fundraising through a private equity fund, counterfeit currencies, and illegal use of credit cards.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal rejected former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai’s challenge of a police search of his phones, which he says contained protected journalistic materials. The High Court had rejected previous challenges to the police search last year. The Court of Appeal said the arguments made now were “radically new” and should have been raised in the earlier proceedings. it also said the issues raised by Lai were moot, as the police had already accessed the journalistic materials in question.
Japan
A long-awaited parliamentary report on Japan’s former eugenics law said that 25,000 people with disabilities were sterilized between 1948 and 1996, with 65% of the procedures carried out without consent. The law authorized sterilizing persons with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, or hereditary disorders. In 2019, the parliament approved compensation payments of 3.2 million yen ($22,000) to each victim, and some victims have sued the government for more compensation.
AI developers, lawyers, academics, and business executives have formed an organization to establish guidelines for using artist-created images as learning materials for AI image generators. The new Japan Image Generative AI Consortium aims to balance copyright protection with the evolution of technology. Japan has no law that specifically addresses AI copyright issues.
The former chairman and CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, filed a $1 billion lawsuit in Lebanon against the company and about a dozen individuals over his imprisonment in Japan and what he says is misinformation spread about him. Ghosn was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on charges of breach of trust, misusing company assets for personal gain, and violating securities laws by not fully disclosing his compensation. He fled Japan while awaiting trial and now lives in Lebanon.
Koreas
The National Assembly voted unanimously to revise South Korea’s anti-stalking law to make it easier to punish stalkers. It abolished a controversial provision that excused stalkers from criminal liability unless their victim agreed they should be punished. Critics had pointed out that victims of stalking often fear retaliation from their stalkers and therefore give up pursuing justice. Since the original law took effect in 2021, many perpetrators have avoided criminal punishment by reaching settlements with the victims.
The leader of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party, Kim Gi-Hyeon, proposed stripping Chinese with permanent residency in South Korea of the right to vote in municipal elections. Since 2005, South Korea has allowed foreigners who have held a permanent residency permit for at least three years to vote in local elections. Chinese comprise the largest group of foreigners with legal residency in South Korea. Kim maintains that they should not be allowed to vote unless Koreans in China are given reciprocal voting rights.
Taiwan
The Constitutional Court ruled that police searches of law firms must exclude materials subject to attorney-client privilege. In response to a petition filed by Lee and Li Attorneys at Law, whose offices were searched by authorities in 2011, the court said for the first time that attorney-client privilege is a right enjoyed by both clients and attorneys, and that portions of the Code of Criminal Procedure dealing with search and seizure are unconstitutional insofar as they fail to exclude materials protected by the privilege. The court ordered that the law be amended within two years, and that searches of law firm offices in the meantime must respect attorney-client privilege.
The legislature confirmed four nominees to be grand justices of the Constitutional Court despite a boycott by two opposition parties. The four are Supreme Court Judge Tsai Tsai-chen (蔡彩貞), Control Yuan Secretary-General Chu Fu-meei (朱富美), National Taiwan University law Professor Chen Chung-wu (陳忠五), and attorney Greg Yo (尤伯祥). President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) made the nominations in late May and the Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party wanted more time to review them.