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September - October 2001 Issue:

Cover by Greg Berger Design, Inc
Cover Photo by Gregory S.Heslin


 


 
John Foarde is vice president of the US-China Business Council in Washington, DC.

 



 



 


 

US Business Supports China's Legal Development

China's upcoming accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlights one of the most critical public policy questions facing the PRC today: how to develop a legal system based on a transparent, open, and publicly accountable process of enacting, interpreting, and enforcing laws. Chinese officials, lawyers, and legal scholars have been debating this question vigorously in recent years, with frequent commentary and recommendations from interested businesspeople, lawyers, and legal scholars in the United States and elsewhere. Since 1998, the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund has played a role not only in the public dialogue about developing the rule of law in China but also in its actual development.

In spring 1998, after advice and encouragement from both Council member representatives and US lawyers and legal scholars, then-Council Chair George Fisher and Council President Robert Kapp decided to act on behalf of US business to animate the interest in building bilateral cooperation in the field of law that presidents Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton expressed during state visits in 1997 and 1998. In June 1998, Fisher and Kapp reached out to Council members to endow a new US-China Legal Cooperation Fund. Thirty-three Council member companies (see box, this page) responded generously to establish the fund, which was organized as a program of the China Business Forum, the Council's charitable education and research arm. The China Business Forum board of directors appointed trustees of the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund from among donors and distinguished academic experts on China and named as chair of the fund Herbert J. Hansell, senior counsel in the Washington office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and former State Department Legal Adviser. The chair of the Council's board of directors also sits ex officio on the fund's board.

From the outset, the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund's creators wished to distinguish it from a more traditional grant-making foundation, and thus asked that the fund keep overhead expenses low to preserve the maximum amount possible for grants. To honor this request, both the Council and Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue provide administrative support to the fund without charge. Trustees of the fund meet twice a year to review grant proposals resulting from a published request for proposals (RFP). Although the fund's proposal requirements are relatively few, the trustees have emphasized fostering cooperation between Chinese and US leg al institutions and practitioners. Thus, the fund has favored proposals from joint applicants representing both the PRC and the United States. The fund maintains a website, www.uschinalegalcoop.org, to publish its RFP in both English and Chinese on the Internet and has taken other steps to disseminate the RFP as widely as possible in the United States and China.

In five grant rounds between spring 1999 and mid-2001, the fund trustees awarded grants totaling about $310,000 to support legal cooperation projects undertaken jointly by American and Chinese organizations (see p.72). The generous response of Council member companies to this year's request for new funding will permit the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund to make additional grants in late 2001 and 2002.

The salience of US-China legal cooperation continues to grow. The fund welcomes the support of other members of the Council; for further information, please e-mail info@uschinalegalcoop.org


US-China Legal Cooperation Fund: Synopsis of Grants Awarded 1999-2001

  • A symposium to develop legal aid for the poor in China conducted by the American Bar Association and the PRC Legal Aid Foundation

  • A survey and analysis of administrative law procedures in four Chinese cities, conducted by the Asia Foundation and the PRC National Institute of Administration

  • Publication of an English-to-Chinese legal dictionary, edited by the China University of Political Science and Law with cooperation from US and UK legal scholars

  • A study of human rights in the judicial systems of the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, conducted by the Research Center for Human Rights, Beijing University Law School

  • An administrative law program to develop administrative laws and processes, conduct pilot programs, and train officials, conducted by the Maxwell School of Citizenship, Syracuse University

  • A research project conducted by the Washington University in St. Louis Law Library and the Legislative Office of the PRC State Council, to compare Chinese and US systems of legal codification, an important component in the promotion of transparent legal institutions

  • A program by the Duke University School of Law and the Qinghua University School of Law to improve teaching methods in the area of business law and securities regulation

  • A project to be conducted by the Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Qinghua University School of Law aimed at production of an Internet-based seminar introducing the US legal system to Chinese lawyers, judges, and law students

  • A project to compile a handbook for election officials conducting village-level elections in China, conducted by The Carter Center in Atlanta and the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs
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  • A project underwriting collaborative research between the International Labor Rights Fund and the Research Center of Industrial Relations of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions that will examine China's labor laws and their level of compliance with international labor standards

  • A project to develop training modules for Chinese administrators, regulators, and lawyers on practical application of the rule of law concept to administrative and legal practice in the context of fostering compliance with China's World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. The project is part of a continuing program conducted by the International Law Institute (United States), People's University School of Law (China), and the Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto (Canada).

  • A project to develop a more effective Code of Lawyer Ethics for the All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA), a collaboration between the American Bar Association and ACLA

  • A study of the development of the rule of law, constitutionalism, and judicial independence in China, conducted by academic experts from the University of California at Los Angeles and the Beijing University Law School

  • Support for the first phase of a long-term academic study of the legal impact on both China and the United States of China's accession to the WTO, conducted by Georgetown University Law Center

  • A proje ct to draft a codification system for existing and future Chinese laws to speed legal research by legal scholars and practitioners as well as business and the general public, conducted by Washington University in St. Louis and the Legislative Office of the PRC State Council

  • A study of US civil liability laws within the system of US securities regulations and a program to teach US securities laws to Chinese students, conducted by the Overseas Young Chinese Forum and the Civil and Commercial Law Research Center of People's University School of Law (China)

  • Support for a legal education teaching fellowship for a US attorney at a Chinese law school, a partnership between the Yale-China Association and Qinghua University School of Law

  • A project to identify and define the administrative law reforms and laws with respect to transparency that China must enact to comply with WTO requirements, conducted by the Asia Foundation and the China National School of Administration

  • A project to conduct a workshop and research on freedom of information and open government in China, together with development of program materials for a continuing administrative law program for China, conducted by the Maxwell School of Citizenship, Syracuse University, and the China National School of Administration

  • A project to conduct field research in two Chinese locales to identify impediments to full implementation of China's labor law, conducted by the International Labor Rights Fund and the Research Center for Industrial Relations, China Institute of Workers' Movement

  • A program to complete a needs assessment for legal aid in Anhui Province and create a criminal investigation and defense manual for Chinese legal aid attorneys; conducted by International Bridges to Justice and the China National Legal Aid Center, Ministry of Justice

  • A project to conduct a series of interdisciplinary seminars in China on WTO standards, structure, and procedures, focusing on rule of law and conflict resolution in the WTO context, conducted by the University of Montana, the Beijing Foreign Affairs College, Fudan University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong

    --John Foarde


    Supporters of the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund

    The following business members of the US-China Business Council support the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund: (An asterix denotes an original donor; some companies are listed as they were known at the time of the donation.)

    ABB Inc.*; AMP Inc.*; American International Group, Inc.*; Applied Materials, Inc.*; ARCO; Baker & Daniels; Cargill, Inc.*; Caterpillar Inc.*; China Products North America*; The Chubb Corp.; CIGNA Corp.*; Citigroup*; The Coca-C ola Co.*; Corning Inc.*; Eastman Kodak Co.*; Eaton Corp.*; Emerson*; Exxon Mobil Corp.*; FedEx Corp.*; Ford Motor Co.*; GE Fund*; General Motors Corp.*; Honeywell Inc.*; Ingersoll-Rand Co.*; Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue*; Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler*; Lehman Brothers*; Merrill Lynch*; Microsoft Corp.*; Motorola Inc.*; Nationwide Global Holdings*; Payless ShoeSource*; PepsiCo, Inc.; Praxair, Inc.*; Timken Co.*; TRW Inc.*; United Technologies Corp.*; and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.*
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