领事保护华侨海外权益若干问题的实证研究

An Empirical Study of Consular Protection of Overseas Chinese Nationals

华侨是长期居住在国外的中国公民,他们分布在世界170多个国家和地区,其起源可追溯至数千年前。作为海外中国公民的一个特殊群体,他们具有自身生存与发展的独特规律,其利益与华人、归侨和侨眷密切相关,其人身关系和财产关系几乎均属于"涉外民事关系"即国际私法调整的对象。目前,对海外中国公民包括华侨权益保护的研究普遍集中在国际公法方面,或者,对华侨的保护研究多数关注其在中国境内的合法权益,而中国领事如何从国际私法的角度保护华侨在海外的正当权益,迄今仍是法学研究中有待开垦的园地。为此,文章以中国法规界定华侨的国籍身份为起点,以理论实践探讨领事保护的法律概念为基点,以其基本原则分析领事保护的国际私法属性为重点,结合中外领事实践,就中国领事如何保护华侨海外权益的若干问题进行分析与探讨,同时提出对策和建议,以期为中国侨务部门的实务工作及领事保护华侨海外权益的立法研究提供有益参考。

Overseas Chinese Nationals(huaqiao) are Chinese citizens permanently residing in foreign countries.They are distributed in more than 170 countries and regions and the migration dates back to thousands of years ago.As a special group of overseas Chinese citizens,they follow unique rules of survival and development.Their interests are closely related to those of Naturalized Overseas Chinese(huaren) and returned Overseas Chinese Nationals(guiqiao) and their families;their personal relations and property relations almost all belong to Foreign-related Civil Relationship under Chinese law and subject to the regulation of private international law.At present,studies on the protection of Chinese citizens living overseas,including huaqiao,generally focus on public international law.In other words,studies on huaqiao protection are mostly concerned with their rights and interests within the Chinese territory,and consular protection from the perspective of private international law remain an area open for exploration.Therefore,based on the definition of huaqiao m Chinese Saws and regulations,the legal concept of consular protection in theory and practice,and the analysis of the private international law nature of consular protection.,this article studies Chinese and foreign consular practices,discusses certain issues on huaqiao protection,and puts forward policy ’recommendations in order to provide practical guidance for Overseas Chinese Nationals departments and reference for relevant legislation.