Manufacturing Innovation

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The annual Global Innovation Index released in September 2021 ranked China twelfth, surpassing developed economies such as Japan, Israel, and Canada and raising fears in the United States amidst sluggish growth in North America and strong growth in the Asia Pacific region.1 Interestingly, the United States government responded by boycotting the Beijing Olympic Games, citing human rights abuses as the main reason.2 A tech war between China and the United States brewed beneath the diplomatic rancor over the attendance at the Olympic Games. Part I documents how the United States has assisted China's tech and intellectual property domination through President Nixon's historic visit to China, giving China Most Favorite Nation (MFN) status and ascending China to the World Trade Organization (WTO). [...]under Deng Xiaoping's leadership during the reform period, China rapidly developed its special economic zones (SEZs), laying the foundation for subsequent tech innovation and production. [...]broadcasting, telecommunications, office machines, computers, integrated circuits, and cell phones are among China's notable exports to the world.9 China dominates in commodities and raw materials, exporting refined petroleum, cotton, plywood, and tea.10 For agricultural products, China occupies the perch as the world's largest producer. Shenzhen rose as the largest among the four.18 Shenzhen, a small fishing locale in the southern part of China's southern province, Guangdong, served as the pioneer of Deng Xiaoping's embrace of economic reforms.19 A market-oriented economy took root in Shenzhen, allowing foreign companies and entities from Hong Kong and Macau to operate and allowing Chinese talents the freedom to leave their hometowns and move into the SEZs.20 Cheap labor proved to be another significant factor facilitating China's rise as a global manufacturer.21 In the 1980s, multinational corporations from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, as well as domestic Chinese companies, opened their factories in the SEZs and other cities in China to take advantage of the cheap and plentiful labor force.22 Indeed, when Deng Xiaoping began his pilot SEZs, China's young workers who wished to lift themselves out of poverty descended into the economic zones in search of better opportunities.23 Shenzhen grew from a population of 59,000 in 1980 to a population of 12,357,000 in 2020.24 The new migrants became the workers, participants, and stakeholders in the global manufacturing frontier.25 Because of the abundance of cheap labor, manufacturers in China have no difficulty keeping production prices low and pleasing consumers and businesses worldwide.26 China's currency manipulation is another factor propelling China to its domination in global manufacturing.27 The United States Congress attempted numerous times to introduce legislation to combat China's currency manipulation.28 China artificially devalued its currency through government control of the exchange rate and refused to let the Chinese Renminbi (RMB) float.29 Despite strong criticisms from the United States, China refuses to allow its currency to freely float.30 China's currency manipulations, according to critics, caused the widening of trade deficits between the United States and China.31 China's currency manipulation allows products to be manufactured at lower prices, hampering competitors and thereafter replacing them.32 In order to cope with China's currency practices, United States manufacturers facing their own existential crises must decide to either outsource jobs overseas or face large risks, including financial ruin.33 The United States lost millions of manufacturing jobs due to massive job outsourcing as the trade deficits between the United States and China continued to persist.34 Geopolitically, in shaping post-Cold-War powers, the United States decided to assist China in its transformation from a poverty-stricken country to a global manufacturer.

The Death of Law

This is a talk about the decline and fall of constitutional law, an overarching characteristic of the new millennium. I focus on the period from the end of the Cold War—once described as the end of history—to what I call the "Second Cold War” beginning in the second decade of this century and having escalated in the proxy war in Ukraine. The Second Cold War is also characterized by an aborted cooptation of China through the World Trade Organization (to tame China's seemingly unstoppable ascension to global supremacy) as well as a state of permanent emergency.

Regulatory Competition, Coordination and Polity Convergence in the Covid Ecosystemic Crisis: A Policy Approach

The paper briefly sketches different "adaptations” possible to address the Covid crisis and then advances three possible avenues for future policy analysis of Covid-related measures, each of these avenues being based on a "conjecture”, respectively an evolutionary, a critical, and a cosmopolitan, and conjecture. The evolutionary conjecture implies regulatory transplants, the critical conjecture elicits competition of Covid-related measures, and the cosmopolitan conjecture assumes coordination of policies. The paper discusses how these conjectures based on pre-Covid literature could explain the regulatory dynamics and then asserts that growing evidence shows that regulatory measures appear to naturally lead to a "polity convergence” based on a common core of "Covid-biopower” and "Covid-biopolitics”. This convergence defies the initial expectations that the fragmented reactions to the Covid crisis could be explained by using the traditional research tools and also poses unprecedented critical issues that demand an expansion of the horizon of policy research.

‘Creabimus!' Creatively re-thinking the corporation and the social contract

This article rethinks the corporation and ‘the social contract with business' for the post-pandemic era. It uses a double historical orientation centred on the turbulence of the 1930s in Europe and America to insist on the company's relationship with government, and to explore transformations in the social contract now needed to socialise and ecologise global business. One part of this history looks forward, from Adolf Berle's modern corporation to the neoliberal corporation and regulatory governance. The article criticises a transformation of regulatory priorities in this era, closely analysing the shift to procedural mandates and questioning the corporate law tactic of ‘enlightening' companies. The second part looks backwards to industrial modernism and Walter Rathenau in Germany in the interwar era, and also earlier (the late 1890s), to salvage a different understanding of the company and social contract, built around more constructivist visions of law, government and social consciousness. This part of the article is insistent about the metaphysical aspects of law and about developing law's equalising powers around corporate impactfulness and injustice. It promotes ‘thought' about collectivism (John Keynes) and the legal and regulatory recalibration that is needed to confront certain amassing challenges of the present. The article makes institutional transformation about shifting onto a different historical axis, whereby we might re-learn collectivist ambitions around the company that co-evolves with law and government, live to the public interest. It proposes a new social contract with business and a new regulatory modus involving law's ‘Creabimus' and ‘regulating dangerously' for situations of widely adverse corporate impactfulness.

Has the seasonal workers directive missed its target? Evidence from Italy during the pandemic

In 2014, the European Union adopted the Seasonal Workers Directive to achieve a twofold aim: meeting employers' demand for flexible and cheap labour and enhancing protection for third-country national (TCN) workers. Especially Article 23, the equal treatment provision, triggered a cautious optimism among scholars and trade unions, which looked at the Directive as a source of increased protection for seasonal workers. However, trade unions also pointed out the limited reach of the Directive, criticising its lack of commitment and ambition. Over the years, and especially during the Covid pandemic, it became clear that the Seasonal Workers Directive did not represent a game-changer for TCN seasonal workers, whose increased protections remained true only on paper. This contribution draws on the case of Italy during the pandemic to understand the reasons for the Directive's limited impact. The article critically examines the different political tensions underpinning the adoption of the Directive, to better understand why the Directive is not applied in practice and how it impacts the labour market and migrants' social conditions.

North America's Shifting Supply Chains: USMCA, COVID-19, and the U.S.-China Trade War

"8 The most important of the factors discussed in the article is the U.S.-China Trade War (discussed in Part III of this article) which, despite the conclusion of the "Phase One" Agreement on January 15, 2020, permits the United States to continue to impose tariffs from 7.5 percent to 25 percent on some $360 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports.9 Many observers, including this writer, believe that these penalty tariffs, imposed originally to pressure China to improve its protection of intellectual 4. property,10 will be in force for the foreseeable future and will exacerbate the already significant pressures on U.S. businesses to restructure their supply chains away from China toward the United States and its two USMCA partners. Given the unpredictability of both the Trump Administration and the Chinese leadership, it is more than a remote possibility that the tariff levels on U.S. imports on the remaining approximately $150 billion worth of Chinese products could be increased without much warning, as this was threatened by the Administration in the Fall of 2019 when the "Phase One" Agreement was under negotiation.11 Thus, in many respects, North America is expected to become the most attractive option for sourcing many parts and components and for supply chain management more broadly, even if the logistics and other complexities of more extensive decoupling from Chinese sources requires an extended period (three to five years) for many manufacturers of complex products. The dislocations will not be limited to U.S. importers because American firms, like chip producers Qualcomm and Intel, as well as Boeing (who count China as one of their most significant markets),13 are likely to lose partial access to that market either because of export controls or as retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States. Initial concerns arose some years ago, well before the coronavirus became a worldwide catastrophe and before the United States and other governments placed blame on China for concealing the seriousness of the outbreak in China in a manner that has made it difficult for other countries, including the United States, to react promptly and effectively to the threats to the health of their own citizens and their economies.14 The pandemic has further reinforced the determination of President Trump and his key advisers (and many on both sides of the aisle in Congress) to greatly reduce or eliminate the supply chain links between U.S. manufacturers and China.15 This monumental change would be accomplished through "reshoring" production either to the United States proper (as the Administration would seemingly prefer) or, more likely in the case of labor-intensive products, "nearshoring" production to Mexico.16 For some products, final assembly and production of parts and components would be split between the United States and Mexico or Canada.

Digital Money & Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – New Opportunity, New Challenge

The power of new technology may, nevertheless, now lead to a fundamental restructuring of banking and financial markets themselves, particularly with the emergence of new private and public digital coins and digital market platforms.1 Markets have been subject to massive continuing changes and advances, which have substantially reformed banking and financial services and products.2 Centrally controlled government, or central bank, markets can now enjoy the technological capability to replace more traditional legacy private markets and services.3 The advent of digital systems has had a major impact on all aspects of banking and finance. Almost 30,000 private digital coins have since been created.9 The value of this market exceeded $1 trillion in the first quarter of 2021 and then grew to $2.06 trillion later in the year.10 Similarly, the valuation of large technology firms, such as BigTech leaders, including Apple and Microsoft, also rose to over $2 trillion.11 While the value of these coins has suffered from substantial variability and volatility, this suffering can be limited or managed through the use of stablecoins, which tie their value to another cryptocurrency, fiat currency, or commodity, with the most notable example being Facebook's Libra coin (now known as Diem), which was launched in June 2019.12 New forms of digital payment systems have also emerged, with over three billion account holders now using different forms of payment applications and electronic wallets.13 Private "CoinTech" has then evolved in competition with PayTech and other forms of financial technology (FinTech) applications (AppTech), including decentralised finance (DeFi), decentralised exchanges (DEXs), and most recently non-fungible tokens (NFTs).14 The most dramatic innovation within these markets may, nevertheless, be the adoption of new forms of official central bank digital currency (CBDC) or digital government coin (GovCoin or StateCoin).15 This has been referred to as the "new incarnation of money," which could lead to a major switch in power from individuals to the state, geopolitical disruption, and adjustment of capital allocation.16 This has to be treated with a combination of "optimism[ ] and humility," with central banks described as moving from being "the aristocrats of finance to its labourers. Central banks had to support the financial system over a decade ago in the wreckage of the global financial crisis beginning in 2008-2009 and then following the coronavirus crisis in 2020-2021.24 This intervention could be taken further forward with central banks effectively nationalising private money and banking systems through a process of highly centralised technological transformation and metamorphosis.25 This could be partly driven by efficiency and stability arguments and accompanied by a decline in physical coin and banknote use, although probably more simply due to the potential perceived loss of control over markets and market function and stability either to private operators or other governments that could otherwise ensue.26 This could result in fundamental change and adjustment. Metal coinage was introduced with the Lydian Stater around 650 BC, which was made from an alloy of gold and silver, with a large number of different types of metal coinage having been created subsequently, especially in new Greek city-states.33 The Persians would introduce gold Darics and silver Sigloi, with the Romans developing the gold Aureus, silver Denarius, and copper Sestertius.34 The Chinese created early forms of knife and tool coins around 1,122-221 BC during the Zhou dynasty,35 with later paper Feiqian (618-907), or "flying cash," during the Tang dynasty,36 and Jiaozi notes (960-1279) during the Song Dynasty.37 The Carolingian Pound was introduced around 742-814 by Charlemagne or Charles the Great (748814).38 The English silver penny and pound sterling date from around 757796.39 The Florence Florin and the Venetian Ducal were introduced around 1252 and 1284.40 The Spanish Real and Peso date from 1350 and 1366.41 The Dutch Guilder and then Thaler, Mark, and Franc emerged between 1252 and 1360.42 The United States dollar was created between 1776 and 1792,43 with the European Euro between 1999 and 2 002.44 The modern Chinese Renminbi dates from 1948.45 Aristotle explained the functions of money in terms of acting as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value, which has remained the principal formulation in economics over time.46 Aristotle, nevertheless, separately highlighted the importance of valuation in his Nicomachean Ethics.41 The two core functions of money, for the purposes of this text, are restated in terms of valuation and value, with care having to be exercised in considering the three economic functions of money in law.48 This division is also reflected in Joseph Schumpeter's distinction between money acting as both a mensuratum (means of measurement) and mensura (the thing measured).49 Because money is a universal item of financial value, the principal uses or applications of money can be explained in terms of valuation, savings or deposit, lending or credit, payment or exchange, investment or return, and risk or loss management.50 A massive edifice of writing has subsequently been erected to examine the subject of money over

China's Belt and Road: Where to Now?

In a recent address, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a huge expansion of the BRI, sustained through dialogue, openness, and innovation among BRI participants.2 In place of confrontation, he envisaged cooperation, social and economic development, and bolstered intercultural exchanges.3 China's revitalized BRI would unshackle the transborder movement of capital, enhance infrastructure relationships, and enrich the productivity of BRI traffic globally.4 President Xi pronounced that wellfinanced and supported initiatives "along that path" would protect vital interests both domestically and globally.5 China's present dilemma is in ensuring that it expands its stature as the largest destination for foreign inbound investment (FDI) to offset the risk of losing access to foreign markets. Some developing states are avoiding the road because of fear of incurring debt loads.17 Others that are already on the road are limiting funding for roadwork to avoid increasing debts.18 Chinese banks are imposing higher interest rates on loans and providing shorter periods to repay them.19 The Group of Seven wealthiest Western states are constructing competitor roads and alternative sources of funding and terms of payment, highlighted by the EU's recently announced Global Gateway.20 American banks are competing strategically to counter the resourcing provided by the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank to fund BRI infrastructure development.21 Stern detractors depict China as constructing a controlled highway along which it restricts access, participation, and the right and manner of exit. In their portrayal, China's BRI operates as a directed highway along which it dictates travel according to laws of the road of its ordination and autocratic application.22 Far from eliciting cooperation from participating states and foreign investors, China's BRI plan, according to them, is to erode consent over the direction, length, and safety of the highway.23 At their most generous, critics envisage that China will reformulate Western liberal treaties of trade and investment into instruments of its self-empowerment that are formally attired in legal apparel.24 These criticisms compound already challenging economic and political roadblocks to BRI construction. The direction, pace, and scale of the BRI will be contingent on how China, in deliberation with its partner states, redresses functional and legal blockages on that road.32 China will be scrutinized on how well it can sustain its BRI as the global trailblazer that nurtures productivity along an infrastructure pathway that traverses target states with often distinct but also shifting needs.33 China will also be scrutinized on how well it can manage fluctuating costs and unexpected roadblocks along its BRI, resist fervent BRI competition from the West, and dissuade state partners from withdrawing.

Social justice and the judicial interpretation of international equal protection law

Social justice is turning into an international concern. This development is a response to the continuous rise of socioeconomic inequality – the gap between the rich and the poor –growing in several OECD member states since the 1970s. International human rights law (IHRL) presently only establishes a weak normative framework regarding social justice. This article argues that the full potential of this framework has still not been activated by international human rights adjudication. There are several reasons for this: a complex history of ideas suggesting little common understanding of the notion of social justice, the focus of international human rights adjudication on individual rather than constitutional justice, and the priority of liberty rights over equality rights. Yet, the domination of the liberal over the social in international human rights adjudication has started to change. The article shows how the social justice concern is beginning to be incorporated into IHRL by judicial interpretation of international equal protection and non-discrimination law (international equal protection law, IEPL). Integrating the social justice concern into IEPL is a legitimate yet transformative step as it increases judicial discretion at the international level. More than many other human rights, socioeconomic equality is highly context-specific and depends on a complex factual assessment of the local circumstances. This exacerbates the institutional legitimacy challenge levelled against international human rights courts. However, the article argues that the legitimacy challenge can be alleviated by focusing more on procedural rather than a substantive international review.

Introducing European Law Open

Launching a new open access journal of European law in times of COVID-19, economic slumps and widespread financial pressures on higher education is not a decision to be taken lightly, and it has not been taken lightly. [...]we want to give scholarship space to breathe- literally, by encouraging long, long articles, and figuratively, by privileging ‘slow', well crafted, fully matured work. [...]European Law Open will confront the normative principles, institutional structures, decision-making processes and substantive values that purportedly found the Union and shape its law. Not only is the European Union a major actor that has significant impacts – both positive and negative – on all the mentioned concerns and problems, but its laws and institutions have played an important role in both ushering some of the current challenges and can hopefully contribute to solving them.

United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy: A framework to accelerate transformative change for persons with disabilities in the peace and security pillar

The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy establishes the first-ever framework for the United Nations system to advance disability inclusion across all pillars of the Organization's work, including the peace and security pillar, and to measure the progress made across the system. Evidence reported since the launch of the Strategy in 2019 demonstrates that the Strategy has provided a clear impetus among United Nations entities and peace operations working in the sector to address the rights of persons with disabilities, who are among the most marginalized in any crisis-affected community. However, the evidence also reveals that while humanitarian entities have made progress since the launch of the Strategy, disability inclusion remains an emerging area of work for peace operations in the field. The article argues that the Strategy's accountability framework has provided a much-needed blueprint and ability to monitor progress across the system, yet far more needs to be done to ensure that the United Nations system is equipped to respond to complex situations and reach the furthest behind first.

EMPHASISING THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN POLLUTION CONTROL TOWARD PUBLIC HEALTH PROTECTIONS

Wabak Coronavirus (COVID-19) yang telah memberi kesan kepada ekosistem sosial secara global ialah gabungan krisis kesihatan awam dan alam sekitar. Di tengah-tengah cabaran yang dihadapi dalam menangani akibat daripada krisis ini, wabak tersebut secara tidak sengaja mendedahkan kepentingan sistem undang-undang alam sekitar dalam melindungi kesihatan manusia daripada pencemaran. Pandemik itu juga meningkatkan kesedaran bahawa ancaman alam sekitar didorong oleh aktiviti manusia. Akibatnya, COVID-19 telah menekankan keperluan untuk memastikan persekitaran yang selamat dan bersih dan kepentingan mempunyai langkah-langkah untuk melindungi kesihatan manusia. Bagi Malaysia, strategi yang bertujuan untuk melindungi alam sekitar boleh didapati dalam peruntukan Akta Kualiti Alam Sekeliling 1974 (EQA). Menggunakan metodologi penyelidikan berasaskan perpustakaan ke atas sumber undang-undang primer dan sekunder, makalah ini bertujuan mengkaji skop EQA mengenai perlindungan kesihatan awam dan kawalan pencemaran. Berlatarbelakangkan kemampanan, penyelidikan ini menyimpulkan bahawa perkaitan di antara pemuliharaan alam sekitar dan perlindungan kesihatan awam bermakna EQA ialah undang-undang yang paling relevan untuk mencapai dua objektif yang saling berkait ini. Adalah dikemukakan bahawa COVID-19 telah menekankan semula kepentingan undang-undang alam sekitar dalam bidang perlindungan kesihatan, yang seterusnya penting untuk agenda pembangunan mampan.Alternate :The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) which has globally impacted the social ecosystem is a combination of public health and environmental crises. Amidst the challenges faced in dealing with the consequences of the crises, the pandemic has unintendedly revealed the significance of the current environmental law system to protect human health from pollution. The pandemic has also heightened the realisation that environmental threats are driven by human activities. Consequently, COVID-19 has underscored the need of securing safe and clean surroundings and has emphasised the importance of having measures to protect human health. For Malaysia, strategies aiming at environmental protection could be found within the provisions of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (EQA). Using the library-based research methodology on primary and secondary sources of law, this paper seeks to examine the scope of the EQA on public health protection and pollution control. Against the backdrop of sustainability, the research concludes that the interlinkages of environmental conservation and public health protection mean that the EQA is the most relevant law to attain these two interrelated objectives. It is submitted that COVID-19 has re-emphasised the importance of environmental law within the realm of health protection, which is in turn essential for the sustainable development agenda.

THE NEED TO ELIMINATE MISMANAGEMENT AND CORRUPTION IN ISLAMIC SOCIAL FINANCE INSTITUTIONS

Semasa pandemik COVID-19, telah jelas bahawa kewangan sosial Islam (ISF) perlu diinstitusikan disebabkan ketidakcukupan kewangan komersial Islam dalam menyediakan penyelesaian kewangan yang mencukupi untuk mencapai kewangan menyeluruh. Oleh yang demikian, penumpuan ISF dengan kewangan komersial Islam sedang terserlah manakala penginstitusian ISF menunjukkan momentum global. Walau bagaimanapun, setakat ini, tiada tatacara tadbir urus komprehensif yang digubal untuk mengawal selia institusi ISF bagi membimbing institusi terbabit dalam menawarkan produk dan perkhidmatan kewangan mereka mengikut parameter Syariah termasuk mengelakkan rasuah. Oleh itu, objektif penyelidikan ini adalah untuk meneroka salah urus dan amalan rasuah yang wujud dalam mengurus ISF dan mencadangkan cara untuk mengatasinya. Bagi mencapai objektif, kajian ini menggunakan analisis dokumen sebagai metodologi penyelidikannya untuk menyemak dan membincangkan pengurusan terpilih dan amalan rasuah institusi ISF yang dilaporkan di seluruh dunia. Adalah dijangkakan bahawa penemuan dari kajian ini akan membantu penggubal dasar, badan penetapan standard untuk kewangan Islam dan institusi ISF untuk menyedari kepentingan mengamalkan amalan tadbir urus yang baik untuk membawa ISF ke peringkat seterusnya. Penyelidikan lanjut boleh dijalankan untuk mengkaji keberkesanan menerima pakai amalan tadbir urus yang baik oleh institusi ISF dan implikasi menerima pakai amalan tersebut.Alternate :During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became apparent that Islamic social finance (ISF) must be institutionalised due to inadequacies of Islamic commercial finance in providing adequate financial solutions to achieve financial inclusion. As such, the convergence of ISF with Islamic commercial finance is emerging while institutionalisation of ISF is gaining momentum globally. However, so far, there is no comprehensive governance code enacted to regulate the ISF institutions to guide them in the offering of their financial products and services within the parameters of Shari'ah, which include avoidance of corruption. Therefore, the objective of this research is to explore the existing mismanagement and corrupt practices found in managing the ISF and to recommend ways to overcome them. To meet its objective, this study adopts document analysis as its research methodology to review and discuss the selected management and corrupt practices of ISF institutions reported worldwide. It is anticipated that findings of this paper would assist policymakers, standard-setting bodies for Islamic finance, and ISF institutions to realise the significance of adopting good governance practices to take ISF to the next level. Further research could be undertaken to study the effectiveness of adopting good governance practices by ISF institutions and the implications of adopting such practices.

THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALISED PANDEMICS

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to the international public health order which could be traced to mid-nineteenth century. With the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the conclusion of international treaties relating to human rights, the right to health has been recognised as an essential component of human rights. This article will analyse the contents and characteristics of the right to health. Then it will examine the challenges of globalisation to the functions of the WHO, including interpretation of treaty obligations of reporting infectious diseases, the causes for the less effective functioning of the international public health order and improvements that may be made. This article argues that to meet the challenges, the WHO and the international community must take measures to reform the international public health order, which should include paying more attention to the experience and needs of developing countries. In the author's view, globalisation is still the grand trend today and as such, every country is easily affected by actions and inactions of other countries. This article suggests that before consensus can be reached at the multilateral level, bilateral and regional arrangements, including the Belt and Road Initiative promoted by China, should be considered as alternative forms for international cooperation in the area of public health.

CHINA'S NEW LEGISLATION ON PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION IN LIGHT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

During the COVID-19 pandemic period, China used a data-based approach to protect public health. Although this approach has supported the containment of the COVID-19 virus, it risks infringing the right to privacy. This article considers how this data-based approach, including data collection, sharing, storage and disclosure could affect the right to privacy and shows that the data collection process in China may involve the collection of irrelevant personal data from too many broad categories and sometimes without consent of the data subject. The results show that the main challenges to the right to privacy are (1) a lack of effective information control and storage safeguards, (2) the improper use and disposal of information and (3) the disclosure of non-desensitised information. This article examines PRC's newly passed legislation, including the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, which constitute China's first systematic and comprehensive regulatory framework to protect personal information. This regulatory framework requires that any restrictions on the right to protect personal information and privacy rights must be in the public interest such as public health and security. This article examines whether and to what extent this regulatory framework is capable of addressing challenges of big data applications to individual rights to privacy and proposes some further improvements.

Investissement

Le ralentissement de la pratique conventionnelle du Canada occasionné par la pandémie de COVID-19 s’est poursuivi en 2021, alors qu’aucun nouveau traité n’a été conclu en matière d’investissement. Cela n’a toutefois pas empêché la publication d’un nouveau modèle d’accord de promotion et de protection des investissements étrangers (APIE) par Ottawa.1 Le phénomène de tarissement des réclamations contre le Canada s’est également poursuivi, de manière prévisible, avec l’abandon du règlement des différends entre investisseur étranger et État (RDIE) entre le Canada et les États-Unis dans l’Accord entre le Canada, les États-Unis et le Mexique (ACÉUM).2 La transition du Canada du statut d’un des États les plus visés par des réclamations à celui d’État de nationalité des investisseurs parmi les plus grands utilisateurs du RDIE est maintenant complétée, avec un nombre record de sentences arbitrales rendues en 2021 dans des affaires initiées par des investisseurs canadiens. Le nouvel APIE-type du Canada de 2021 et les développements dans le contentieux de l’investissement canadien à l’étranger font l’objet d’une analyse détaillée dans la chronique cette année. Un tour d’horizon des principaux autres faits marquants de 2021 est d’abord effectué.

Commerce

L’année 2021 a décidément été marquée au fer rouge par la pandémie de COVID-19. Replis nationalistes notamment chez notre voisin du sud, pénurie de main-d’œuvre et confinements à répétition, entre autres en Chine, ont provoqué des ruptures dans les chaînes d’approvisionnement comme jamais. Néanmoins, le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2021 considère que le commerce s’est montré plus résilient que lors de la crise financière mondiale de 2008: “Il a aidé les pays à faire face à la crise en facilitant l’accès aux fournitures médicales, aux produits alimentaires et aux biens de consommation, et en contribuant à leur redressement économique.”1 Au niveau canadien, les enjeux d’approvisionnement, entre autres de puces et de semi-conducteurs, ont affecté la production manufacturière. La hausse des prix des matières premières a provoqué une augmentation des prix à la consommation. Si le citoyen a subi ce phénomène, les entreprises ont vu la valeur de leurs exportations augmenter, plafonnant à un niveau jamais vu de 637 milliards de dollars américains.2 C’est donc dire que le Canada a non seulement rattrapé le déficit de l’année 2020, mais a surpassé les résultats de l’année 2019, de 7 pour cent.3 Au niveau des importations, les résultats atteignent aussi des chiffres records avec une hausse de 12,2 pour cent comparativement à 2020 et de 2,7 pour cent par rapport à 2019.4

Parliamentary Declarations in 2021

Statements Made on the Introduction of Legislation / Déclarations sur l’introduction de la législation United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act / Loi sur la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement Implementation Act / Loi de mise en œuvre de l’Accord de continuité commerciale Canada–Royaume-Uni Statements in Response to Questions / Déclarations en réponse aux questions environment / environnement Biodiversity / Biodiversité Climate Change / Changement climatique Energy / Énergie foreign affairs / affaires étrangères Iran Israel / Israël Myanmar Russia / Russie Taiwan / Taïwan Ukraine United States / États-Unis health / santé COVID-19 human rights / droits de la personne Anti-Semitism / Antisémitisme Canadians Abroad / Canadiens à l’étranger China / Chine Ethiopia / Éthiopie Hong Kong Sri Lanka humanitarian intervention and aid / aide et intervention humanitaire Ethiopia / Éthiopie Palestine migration Immigration Refugees / Réfugiés trade and economy / commerce et économie Aerospace / Aérospatiale Agriculture Arms Trafficking / Trafic d’armes Electric Vehicle Tax Credit / Crédit d’impôt pour l’achat de véhicules électriques Foreign Workers / Travailleurs étrangers Investment / Investissements Newcomers / Nouveaux arrivants Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) / Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE) Pipelines / Oléoducs Security / Sécurité Softwood Lumber / Bois d’œuvre résineux Supply Management / Gestion de l’offre Taxation / Fiscalité Tourism / Tourisme Trade Agreements / Accords commerciaux Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) / Accord économique et commercial global entre le Canada et l’Union européenne (AÉCG) Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States (CUSMA) / Accord entre le Canada, les États-Unis d’Amérique et les États-Unis mexicains (ACÉUM) Trade in Weapons / Ventes d’armes Vaccines / Vaccins Women in Business / Femmes entrepreneures World Trade Organization / Organisation mondiale du commerce Statements Made on the Introduction of Legislation / Déclarations sur l’introduction de la législation bill c-15: united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples act / loi c-15: loi sur la déclaration des nations unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones 1 L’hon. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2 is an international human rights instrument that affirms the rights that constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of indigenous peoples. The bill makes a number of important statements in the preamble by acknowledging the importance of the Declaration as a framework for reconciliation, healing and peace;recognizing inherent rights;acknowledging the importance of respecting treaties and agreements;and emphasizing the need to take diversity across and among indigenous peoples into account in implementing the legislation. By requiring the Government of Canada to, first, take measures to align federal law with the Declaration in clause 5;second, to develop an action plan in consultation and co-operation with indigenous peoples in clause 6;and third, to report to Parliament annually on progress in clause 7, Bill C-15 proposes a clear pathway to stronger, more resilient relationships between the government and indigenous peoples.

Endogenous, Exogenous And Existential Risk – New Global Solutions

Countries can be assisted through a separate 'Financial Investment, Regulatory, Social and Technology' (FIRST) agenda with emerging markets benefiting from a dedicated 'Sustainable Assistance Finance and Engagement' (SAFE) program with climate protection secured through a parallel 'Sustainable Assistance and Value Enterprise' (SAVE) agenda. The purpose would be to create a set of essential global minimum measures or key 'Global Objectives and Absolute Living Standards' (GOALS) based on a 'Core Objectives, Directions, Ethics' (CODE) statement or primary set of 'Conduct Objectives Regulations and Ethics' (CORE). Financial markets are core components within any modern economy and society with market risk and exposures and other internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) threats having to be built into any larger new systems examination and architecture.10 This also requires the adoption of a longer, and inter-generational11 or monumental approach,12 rather than short-term planning perspective to respond to emergent threats and continuing larger global problems. Financial markets and financial regulation have been developed to manage specific forms of identifiable risk as well as more peripheral exposures that may impact on market function and market stability.13 Financial institutions attempt to identify a full range of possible exposures, and to deal with these either directly through risk management systems and controls, including with capital, liquidity, and leverage constraints;or indirectly through the maintenance of appropriate continuity and support management systems.14 These include new Recovery and Resolution Programs (RRPs) and Special Resolution Regimes (SRRs).15 Financial regulation has traditionally been either micro, market and sector specific, or macro focused, which assesses the financial system as a whole.16 Other more subtle forms of exposure can be identified between these with new additional forms of prudential, or subprudential, regulation being developed.17 A number of recommendations can be made to construct new, more effective and efficient types of market regulation and control.