Swiss Chinese Law Review

An Analysis of Legal Status of the Anonymous Foreign Shareholder in Foreign Invested Enterprises in China

2023-05-02T17:19:56+08:00

This article points out that the anonymous shareholder in foreign invested enterprises in China should not be identified as foreign shareholder and that the substantive relationship between the anonymous shareholder and the nominal shareholder should be defined as a relationship between an obligee and an obligor. Furthermore, it argues that the judiciary should not change the administrative functions of administrative state bodies and that judgements rendered by the judiciary should consider how the relevant administrative bodies might feasibility recognise and enforce the law. This article suggests that a pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list system should be implemented as a core system of foreign investment access in China and that the boundary between executive and judicial power should be clearly defined.

Do Political Developments Threaten International Legal Collaborations?

2023-05-02T17:56:53+08:00

As a lawyer who started her career in the Ankara office of a global law firm in the early 2000s, international collaborations have always been my norm.

Energy investments I worked on extensively required the application of laws from many different countries from a project’s development stage to its completion and commercial life. This required knowing many legal systems simultaneously, particularly the law of the project country and different laws that would apply to financing agreements, EPC contracts, O&M contracts, and agreements between project partners.

The Secret to Cross-Border Trade Secret Protection: How cross-border collaboration can enforce your cross-border trade secrets

2023-05-02T21:07:33+08:00

Even when geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S.A. arise or seem more visible, US and Chinese businesses' research, development, manufacturing, distribution often overlap or occur in partnership, as well as in competition. Navigating trade secret protection, particularly in US-Chinese cross-border situations may be the key to achieving significant success or suffering near-catastrophic failure in international commerce. This article provides an introduction to the US’s and China’s respective trade secret laws, and where and how trade secret disputes involving US and Chinese parties might be addressed and resolved.

International Collaboration of Legal Firms

2023-05-02T18:32:25+08:00

Thirty years ago, in the 1990s, it was still relatively rare for mega law firms to have an established global reach. Together with the globalisation of legal education and a relatively mobile workforce of legal talent, the internationalisation of law firms has solidified the tightening of cross-border legal collaboration. Participants like us at Stevenson, Wong & Co. in Hong Kong have accumulated a great wealth of experience, be it high-profile or day-to-day work, in this competitive cross-border legal service arena.

An African Perspective on Cross-border legal work

2023-05-02T21:36:52+08:00

When I first started practicing law internationally in southern Africa thirty years ago, things were simpler, in the sense that communication was more basic. There was no internet, no emails, and none of the gadgets that we know of today. If you wanted to communicate with a lawyer outside your jurisdiction you needed to write a letter, affix a postage stamp to it, and drop it off at the post office. Thirty years ago, I worked in a “modern” law firm which was, “well equipped”. It boasted a telex machine (an upgraded telegraph device that sputtered out words in machinegun- like bursts). The pride and joy of the firm was a fax machine. It was revolutionary and could send a document by putting it through the machine, after which it would come out instantaneously on the other side of the world. As there was no World Wide Web for you to google search for a foreign lawyer you had to subscribe for or enrol in a directory such as Martindale and Hubble which lawyers received as a hardcover book every year.

A Look at the Changes in Vietnam’s New IP Law

2023-05-02T22:01:26+08:00

The National Assembly of Vietnam ratified a new Law on Intellectual Property on June 16, 2022 (the Amended IP Law), marking the most significant amendment of the country’s primary legislation for intellectual property since 2009. The Amended IP Law (with the exception of a few provisions that will be delayed) took effect on 1 January 2023

Law during War: Can legal systems unite us

2023-04-28T20:54:54+08:00

In the middle of a war in Eastern Europe, western businesses are wondering how to cope with the new measures imposed by their governments regarding trade with Russia.