Compensatory Damages in Personal Information Public Interest Litigation in China: Challenges and Prospects

In contrast to private interest litigation,public interest litigation provides a more potent solution to personal information infringements marked by extensive scope,unspecified victims,and limited individual loss.However,com⁃pensatory damages remain a contentious issue,both in theory and in practice,within the legal framework of personal in⁃formation public interest litigation.Through an empirical study conducted within China's judicial practice,this paper reveals that the pending issue concerning the nature and function of compensatory damages has caused highly contra⁃dictory verdicts regarding their calculation and allocation,as well as their relationship with other forms of pecuniary li⁃abilities.Only by acknowledging the role of compensatory damages imposed in personal information public interest liti⁃gation as"Skimming off Excess Profits",and affirming their function as deterrence rather than compensation can they truly achieve the broader objective of safeguarding personal information security and promoting public welfare,as well as avoid disrupting the harmony of the existing legal landscape.

Challenges to Online Criminal Litigation in the Context of Smart Justice and Responses——Focusing on the Protection of the Right to Defense

Online criminal litigation transcends the constraints of physical time and space and changes the logic and path of trial hearings for some criminal cases with the help of technology.However,the leapfrog shift from the“physical field”to the“virtual field”has brought great challenges to the effective exercise of the defendant's right to defense.Online criminal justice further highlights the imbalance in the relationship between prosecution and defense in the context of smart justice,and proposes a new topic for protecting the human rights of the prosecuted.The introduction of online criminal litigation in judicial practice is intended to achieve justice in a faster and more convenient way.However,the dissipation of the ritualized remote hearings tends to undermine the effectiveness of the defense and impair the defense's ability to cross-examine evidence,while the technically advantageous public authorities can aggravate the barrier to the defense's meeting and reading the case file.The root cause is that technological power instrumentalism overemphasizes pragmatism and the pursuit of truth under the position of authority,thus diluting humanistic care for the subject of litigation.In order to resolve the problem with the quality and effectiveness of the right to defense in remote hearings,it is necessary to transform online criminal litigation from a“practical technical tool”to a“convenient auxiliary method,”and appropriately weigh the limits of pursuing truth against human rights protection in special scenarios.Meanwhile,it is also feasible to provide technical care for the defense and strengthen its ability to cross-examine evidence.Moreover,a covert communication platform should be furnished for the defender's online meeting to actively strengthen the protection of the defendant's right to defense.

Rights Risks of Using Affective Computing Technology in Public Governance and Their Regulation

As the frontier of intelligent computing technology,affective computing has been used in border inspection,case investigation,crime assessment,public opinion management,traffic management and other scenarios of public governance.However,there are still public risks associated with its failure to meet the basic requirements of modern public governance,and these risks are rooted in its technical characteristics.The technical characteristics of turning emotions into signals can give rise to such problems as degrading the right to informed consent,de-governance,and undermining human dignity when applied in public governance,and consequently can lead to social rights anxiety.Additionally,the affective modeling characteristics of affective computing tend to incur the rights risks of insufficient algorithm accuracy,algorithmic discrimination,and algorithmic black boxes.To avoid these risks,it is necessary to adopt the dynamic consent model as the premise for applying affective computing in public governance,and to regulate the auxiliary application of affective computing in public governance in a hierarchical manner,to achieve a balance between the application of affective computing technology and the protection of citizens'rights and the maintenance of public ethics.

The Protection of Right of Minors to Express Their Opinions in Family Litigations

The right of minors to express their opinions in family litigations refers to minors,who have a certain degree of mental capacity and assertiveness,having the right to express their opinions on the arrangements or decisions related to themselves when the courts handle familial litigation cases involving their interests,and to request the courts hear their opinions.In essence,the right of minors to express their opinions in family litigations belongs to the basic procedural rights of minors as well as judicial beneficiary rights.As for the protection of the right of minors to express their opinions in family litigations,recognizing the status of minors as independent subjects of rights is the logical premise,the procedural guarantee for the rights of the substantive parties involved is the direct cause,and ensuring the best interests of children is the fundamental reason.In order to protect the right of minors to express their opinions in family litigations,China should standardize the mechanisms for judges to hear the opinions of minors directly,improve the mechanisms for family investigators,and establish mechanisms for representing the interests of minors.

On the Plaintiff's Subject Qualification for Environmental Public Interest Litigation Instituted by People's Procuratorates

Although it is not the main duty for the People's Procuratorate to institute environmental public interest litigation proceedings, the existence of "reserve" prosecution right of plaintiff not only is beneficial to timely prevention and cure of environmental damage, but also contributes indispensable judicial supervision force to the environmental legality construction. In order to safeguard environmental public interests, many local prosecutorial organizations have practiced environmental public interests litigation. Since Chinese law has not made explicit stipulation on the function of the People's Procuratorate instituting environmental public interest litigation, the plaintiff's subject qualification for environmental public interest litigation instituted by the People's Procuratorate is still in question. In order to propel the People's Procuratorate to completely and fully exercise their power of supervision and prosecution, there shall be corresponding legislation that provides powerful guarantee for the People's Procuratorate instituting environmental public interest litigation.

The Intervention Path of Fundamental Rights under the Scope of International Private Law

In recent years, international private law scholars have argued for the radiating effect of fundamental rights on international private law by introducing constitutional theory. However,there remains a lack of systematic research on how fundamental rights should be integrated into judicial practices concerning foreign-related civil and commercial cases. Throughout the development of international private law, public policy has served as a historical carrier of substantive values for judicial entities and has consistently played a crucial role in value review. In cases of international private law where conflicts arise with the values of fundamental rights, public policy indirectly excludes the legal choice outcomes to safeguard the human rights values inherent in fundamental rights from infringement.However, due to limitations imposed by the degree of connection and relative conditions, traditional paths of public policy have certain constraints and cannot provide comprehensive protection for fundamental rights. Therefore, there is a need for judges to shift their logical paradigms, transcend bilateral choice-of-law models, and introduce a direct intervention path for fundamental rights. This direct intervention path utilizes the logical analysis framework of the protection scope,intervention, and justification of fundamental rights. It can effectively balance conflicting legal interests and maximize the protection of the fundamental rights of the parties involved.

The Conflict and Balance Between Intellectual Property Rights and Public Freedom of Information in the“Anti-circumvention Clause”

There is a long-standing conflict between intellectual property rights and public freedom of information.The continuous development of the“anti-circumvention clause”has caused the conflict to intensify.As a basic human right,freedom of information is being gradually eroded by the expansion of intellectual property rights.The existing research mainly carries on the right balance from the negative protection path,but the positive protection path is more advantageous to realizing the public freedom of information and alleviates the conflict between the two kinds of rights.In practice,there are some problems in the application of the anti-circumvention clause,such as the legality of the aim,the division of the protected part,and the determination of the circumvention.This is mainly due to the lack of restrictions on technical measures,the failure to distinguish between“copyright protection”and“contact control”,and the offside and absence of administrative bodies in practice.We should protect public freedom of information by distinguishing the two measures of copyright protection and contact control and the two torts of access and use,increasing the restrictive conditions for the use of technical protection measures,and changing the functions of administrative supervision agencies.

On the Expansion and Realization of the Right to Environmental Information in Environmental Protection Supervision

As an innovation in the environmental governance system that breaks the traditional hierarchical structure,environmental protection supervision has not only played a significant role in protecting tangible environmental rights but also expanded the basic scope of the right to environmental information—part of procedural environmental rights.In the supervision of environmental protection,the objects of the right to environmental information and the subjects of the obligation to provide environmental information have been both expanded,with the focus shifting from government information to Party information and from administrative organs to Party organs.This vividly demonstrates the Communist Party of China’s concrete efforts to protect human rights in the field of the endeavor to build an ecological civilization.At present,the realization of the right to environmental information in environmental protection supervision still faces problems such as insufficient standards and norms,disordered practice and operation,and lack of liability guarantee.In this context,based on renewing relevant subjects’cognition of the right to know in environmental protection supervision,we should further improve and specify the rule for disclosing information about environmental protection supervision,rationally distribute the obligations for information disclosure in environmental protection supervision,and clarify the accountability rules for violating relevant requirements for information disclosure,so as to promote the overall development of the environmental protection supervision system while guaranteeing the realization of the right to environmental information.

Human Rights, Governance and Public Policy to Counter the Structural Problems and Brain Drain in Latin America and Haiti

This article will analyze human rights linked to their impact on democracy, inequality, government policies and other structural problems such as an imminent obstacle for socioeconomic development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is considerable challenges for construction of a rule of law, regional policy and that all people can live in a suitable environment. Today daily brain drain contributes a handicap for the socio-educational and professional development in the region particularly in Haiti. At the end of the article, the results of the research on the difficult socioeconomic situations that prevent extremely poor Haitians to enjoy a dignified life, resulting in partial emigrations to abroad and brain drain will occur. Also, the aspirations of the people are shown in the two poorest departments： Northeast and Northwest.

History and Logical Progression of China's Public Health System——From the Perspective of the Protection of the Right to Health

A public health system generally refers to public utilities oriented toward protecting and improving health. It is intended to protect the health of the general public. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China has constructed the largest healthcare system in the world. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC), stressed that China will improve its public health system. Looking back at the history of China’s public health system from its inception to the reform and development and then improvement, it can be found that its development has always revolved around the theoretical logic of unifying rights and obligations and the practical logic of balancing the protection of the right to health and the regulation of state power. The fundamental goal is to protect the right to health of the people. The increasing health risks in modern society have changed require that efforts be made to construct a crisscrossing legal framework for public health, improve early-warning and emergency response mechanisms for public health emergencies,and integrate the health concept into all policies to further improve the public health system.

The Limits of the Intervention of Public Power in Individual Health Choices——From the Perspective of the Realization of the Right to Health in the Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases

Noncommunicable chronic diseases have become the most important public health problem in the world today,so the focus of public health services should be shifted from the traditional area of communicable diseases to the prevention and control of chronic diseases.Since bad living habits are the most direct cause of chronic diseases,the most effective measure to prevent and control chronic diseases is to promote healthy lifestyles for the individual citizen.The theories of equal health opportunity,the right to health from the perspective of human rights,and determinants of a healthy society provide justified reasons for the intervention of public power in individual health choices.In the current legal system,the intervention of public power is limited to flexible measures such as health education,which shows respect for individual autonomy.However,it is inconsistent with the needs of current public health practice.We should expand diversified intervention means to encourage individuals to make healthy choices under the guidance of the management model.The“ladder of intervention”outlines a panoramic view of the intervention measures available.However,for the selection of specific measures,it is necessary to consider the public health objectives and the invasion of individual freedom,introduce the“legal reservation principle”and“proportionality principle”as policy analysis tools,and reasonably choose intervention measures at different levels on the ladder to properly handle the tension between public power and private rights.

The Impact of Central Environmental Inspections on the Perception of Respect for Human Rights and Its Empirical Analysis

To develop China’s human rights cause with a people-centered approach,we should pay close attention to the concrete experiences of the general public regarding the protection of human rights.Deepening the research on the perception of respect for human rights can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the practical achievements of the hu man rights cause.Public environmental rights,as a new type of human rights,have become an important aspect of the development of the human rights cause in the new era.The central envi ronmental inspection,as an authoritative and interventionist vertical governance mechanism,promotes the implementation of environmental policies by local Party committees and govern ments and strengthens environmental information disclosure and public participation in environ mental matters.As a result,it contributes to the realization of public environmental rights and stimulates public perception of respect for human rights.Among them,the“look-back inspec tion is an important component of the central environmental inspection,and its implemen tation consolidates and enhances the previous inspection work.An empirical analysis based on the World Values Survey’s data for China indicates that residents in the provinces that have underg one“look-back inspections are more inclined to believe that human rights are adequately re spected compared to residents in the provinces that have not underwent such inspections.It suggests that the advancement and improvement of the central environmental inspection system promote improvements in ecological environment quality and contribute to enhancing the public percep tion of respect for human rights.

Research on Environmental Public Interest Litigation in Taiwan

As germination and rise of public environmental awareness in Taiwan, large-scale air pollution, water pollution, noise, land subsidence and other public hazards harming human health and living environment caused by various production or consumption activities are generated. Facing the situation of environment increasingly aggravates, environmental public interest litigation system is constructed. First, Article 9 of Administrative Procedure Law stipulates public interest litigation;then ,Article 34 of Environmental Basic Law cleady stipulates important elements of public interest litigation. In the research, taking the first environmental public interest litigation in Taiwan as the example, collusion process between government and developer, and private environmental protection groups finally obtaining victory through the continuous effort and litigation are illustrated, thereby uncovering so-called ＂legal＂ saying by government and developer. Environmental maintenance and improvement is the duty of every citizen should do, but not only the duty of govemment, which is mentality of environmental public interest litigation development should have and road must take.

Machines as readers: A solution to the copyright problem

Copyright and its international complications have presented a significant barrier to the Universal Digital Library （UDL）＇s mission to digitize all the published works of mankind and make them available throughout the world. We discuss the effect of existing copyright treaties and various proposals, such as compulsory licensing and the public lending fight that would allow access to copyrighted works without requiring permission of their owners. We argue that these schemes are ineffective for purposes of the UDL. Instead, making use of the international consensus that copyright does not protect facts, information or processes, we propose to scan works digitally to extract their intellectual content, and then generate by machine synthetic works that capture this content, and then translate the generated works automatically into multiple languages and distribute them free of copyright restriction.

The Discussion on Railway Public Property Right and State-capital Formation Mechanism

During the process of private enterprise and relaxing control, the railway industry of the entire world reserves considerably proportional state enterprise and state capital. One important reason of these economic phenomena is that there are many establishment collectivities in the railway industry. Every railway transportation enterprise uses the railway network, the hinge, the organizing group station and even the control center, take the format of public property and state capital to organize the relative transportation resources, which is more efficient in many instances than the private property right and capital, which is also the important economic reason why in the railway industry all of the world there are still ubiquitous for the public property rights and state-capital.

Discussion of China's Environmental Public Interest Litigation System

This paper, through research on the status quo of China's environmental public interest litigation and seizing the opportunity that the Law of Civil Procedure has first clearly defined public interest litigation, focuses on analysis of present difficulties and institutional dilemma related to the environmental public interest litigation in China and involves some useful discussions of main subject scope, burden of proof, funds guarantee and stopping infringement before litigation etc.

Relief for Defendants Whose Litigation Rights Have Been Infringed upon by Courts: Problems and the Way Out

In regard to the people’s court’s infringement upon the litigation right of defendants,there are two relief means in our country:procuratorial supervision and appeal,neither of which can realize the goal of relief.The conflict between interrogation and defense has to do with the lack of relief mechanism.To solve the problem concerning relief to the defendant whose litigation right is infringed upon the court,independent procedural appeal mechanism must be established,the relationship between it and factual appeal must be properly dealt with.The procedure for procedural appeal should be made in accordance with the characteristics of procedural appeal.

On the Public Diplomacy of China in the Human Rights Fields

With the development of human rights as the mainstreaming in the international society, the public diplomacy in human rights field is more significant than before. China is facing both opportunities and challenges in regard to the human rights exchange and cooperation, and the public diplomacy of China on human rights needs strengthening. China Society for Human Rights Studies has achieved a lot in human rights studies and promotion in China and in international public diplomacy. The Center for Human Rights Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences plays an important role as a think tank as well. The Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center is another example in Chinese public diplomacy on human rights. While the western NGOs are quite active, the voice of their counterparts in the developing countries is very low. China should take efforts to promote public diplomacy on human rights, including advocating Chinese understanding of human rights and participating in drafting and exercising the international human rights law.

The Empirical Investigation and Improvement Path of Judicial Protection of Civil Litigation Rights in China

The close coupling of civil litigation rights and human rights mean how well litigation rights are realized can directly or indirectly affect the judicial protection of human rights.Therefore,human rights protection in the field of civil litigation should take the right of civil litigation as the starting point and core.Based on a sample questionnaire survey of judges and lawyers,this paper conducts an empirical analysis and proposes that the exercise of this right should be taken as the main line to build a comprehensive protection mechanism for this right to realize its role in providing an institutional guarantee for human rights protection.It specifies three aspects:first,the process of filing a case should uphold the freedom and equality of the right to initiate litigation,remove substantial obstacles that affect the filing of the case,and ensure access to justice for disadvantaged groups;second,the trial procedure should have strengthened checks and balances on judicial power to ensure the right of litigation is compromised,and respects the procedural subject status of the two parties to realize equal protection of both parties;the third is to promote the implementation and improvement of relief for this right in the supervisory procedure,clarify the boundary of its relief by procuratorial supervision,and enhance the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the relief.

Working Together Towards Fairer,More Equitable,Reasonable,and Inclusive Global Human Rights Governance——Summary of Academic Views on the “2022 Beijing Forum on Human Rights”

on July 26, 2022, the 2022 Beijing Forum on Human Rights, co-organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the China Foundation for Human Rights Development, was successfully held in Beijing, with the theme of “Working Together Towards Fairer, More Equitable, Reasonable and Inclusive Global Human Rights Governance”. About 200 senior officials, experts, and scholars from more than 70 countries and international organizations delivered fruitful results in five parallel sessions on Sustainable Development and Human Rights protection, Democracy and Human Rights protection, public Health Security and Human Rights protection, Multilateralism and Global Human Rights Governance, and open and Inclusive Development and Human Rights protection.