An overview of liability and compensation for personal injury in China under the general principles of civil law

This article reviews the personal injury tort system in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Chinese torts law has a number of unique features. To begin with, it is quite new — the legal framework of torts law was established only in 1986. The unique features of the Chinese torts law also stem from its long and difficult evolution over nearly 40 years. Equally important has been the remarkable blend of influences that have shaped its current law — a mixture of socialist objectives, capitalist pragmatism, and feudal doctrines combined with jurisprudential models taken from a range of western civil codes and, more recently, the common law.

Part one of the article briefly analyses the most important features of the existing Chinese legal system. Part two provides a background to the enactment of the General Principles of Civil Law (GPCL), which incorporates Chinese torts law. The review looks at the development and drafting of the GPCL legislation, and the influences that guided the formulation of legal principles. Part three of the article provides an overview of the torts law provisions in the GPCL. Part four examines the law of personal injury established by the GPCL. Part five uses some case studies to illustrate the principles highlighted in the previous two parts and part six contains a brief conclusion and some pointers to the directions that Chinese torts law may take in the future.

Professional artists in Vietnam : intellectual property rights, economic and cultural sustainability

The article outlines the legal context for Vietnamese artists that is not discussed in other literature, including the scarcity of data on the art market, the reasons for failure to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights and legal contracts, and the rapid growth of private-sector art dealing that makes an examination of the legal context so essential. The author's field research in Vietnam since 2003 is linked to analyses of Vietnam's art market and to civil codes and other international agreements that determine professional artists’ IP rights. This illustrates the reasons why IP rights have not been enforced or arbitrated in Vietnam. The author includes a discussion of the importance of enforcing IP law for the maintenance of artists’ incomes and careers, the development of a national art market, and for innovation and cultural sustainability in Vietnam.