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November 28, 2007
Law and Religion: A Western Perspective on China
Southern Weekly （南方周末）interviewed Harold Berman, author of " Law and Revolution," found here and here. That Berman, whose expertise extended to the religious foundations of Western law, should be the focus of a two-hour interview with an iconoclastic and popular Chinese language Sunday Magazine is in itself a wonder -- not solely for its political commentary. One is delighted to know that its readership is, in the minds of the editors, sufficiently well-educated and curious to wish to read it.
法的背後是什麼？
南方周末 2007-11-22 14:30:57
2006年1月31日，中國社會科學院美國研究所研究員、美國埃莫裏大學法學院法律與宗教研究中心客座研究員劉澎在埃莫裏大學法學院伯爾曼教授的辦公室采訪了伯爾曼教授。在這次長達2個半小時的訪談中，伯爾曼先生深入淺出地歸納了自己的法學觀，這是伯爾曼先生去世前單獨與中國學者進行的最為深入的一次學術對話。限於篇幅，本報對訪談有刪節。
劉澎(以下簡稱劉)：教授，您認為在宗教和法律之間存在共同之處嗎？
伯爾曼(以下簡稱伯)：是的，至少有四點：儀式、傳統、權威和普遍性。對法律的信仰是普遍的，就像一種世界宗教。我非常相信基督教和所有偉大的宗教，特別是儒教和佛教，以及所有世俗的信仰，包括共產主義在內，都有一個精神層面的東西。
劉：在一個國家，沒有宗教信仰基礎，法律自身能否單獨發揮作用？
伯：法律只有具備了精神上的效力才能發揮作用，如果每個人都認為違反法律是錯誤的，我們就需要這個法律。我知道這在哪裏都是如此。
劉：您的意思是說，在法律之上還有適用於全人類的某些普遍原則？
伯：對，它存在於人的內心之中。
劉：那麼，您認為對法律的信仰和對宗教的信仰之間是否存在主要的差別？
伯：我認為法律有一個精神層面的信仰，取決於你怎麼看。像《十誡》當中的第六、第七條戒律，已被納入到了所有的文明之中，無論在哪種文化中，盜竊、殺人、毀約等等都是錯誤的。
劉：在中國，我們沒有這種基督教背景、文化和傳統，因此有人強調法律的重要性，呼籲人民尊重法律。我們的問題是，我們有法律，但沒有人執行或遵從它，您有什麼解決辦法？
伯：我認為，如果他們改變自己對法律的理解，事情就會有轉機，因為法律不止是政府所說的話。人們知道的主要是習慣法，那是由人們自己在家裏制定出來的。他們恪守承諾、與鄰為善，他們認為應該如此。
劉：也就是說習慣法是基於人的內心。
伯：是的。子女應該尊重父母，父母應該照顧子女。
Read the interview in its entirety here.
Posted by Richard at 3:40 PM | Comments (0)November 16, 2007
Demands for Currency Revaluation Ad Infinitum
Once again the helpless cry in the Western wilderness. Won't China allow the Yuan to "strengthen at a faster rate?" No, indeed. How is doing so in China's interest?
The movers and shakers of the so-called great economic powers, who have, it is said, the power over the purses that pay for imported product -- are powerless to affect any change either at home or abroad, despite ostensible regulatory control and direct market influence. This should not surprise anyone.
The rate of exchange has been the subject of heated discussion for over a decade. It can be considered a scientific principle that the amount of hot air expended upon it is inversely proportional to the movement engendered.
Traders, journalists, commerce department officials, Fortune 500 executives, Taiwanese investors -- all have averred to me over the past decade their strong belief that a policy change is imminent. And none has come along. I have contradicted my colleagues for years their sanguine approach to little avail. Hope springs eternal. One should, instead, bite into the proverbial Apple for a look outside the dreamy Eden-world to the hard analysis of interests （利害關係）. How does devaluation figure into China's economic interest? Stay away from the theoretical and answer with supreme practicality. It does not.
For now, China is signaling little willingness to bow to pressure. Central bank Deputy Governor Wu Xiaoling said Oct. 19 China won't hurry to alter its exchange-rate system, saying the country is already ``moving in a correct direction and in a smooth manner.''
"For now" is about as pregnant as one can get without knowing you've just given birth.
Posted by Richard at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)November 9, 2007
Guest Analysis: Yunnan Province and the Hukou Registration System
[Editor's Note: I'm grateful to Carl Minzner, author of the China Law and Politics blog, for permitting the reposting of his analysis below. His post represents a scarce example in modern Chinese Studies of a laudable skepticism towards a claim, the import of which, if unquestioned, would have lead to an unfounded assumption regarding Chinese life, law and government.
The claim is that Yunnan Province will eliminate the hukou (户口) registration system, a development which, if true, would signal changes of significant magnitude in the administration of population movement, benefits distribution, registration for schooling and the like. What is the hukou system? Briefly,
China's hukou system has imposed strict limits on ordinary Chinese citizens changing their permanent place of residence since it was instituted in the 1950s.
Hukou registration, as a system of government control, has changed since that time, but it has not been eliminated. Fei-ling Wang's testimony to Congress in 2005 provides an excellent survey for those interest in reading on it. Carl's other posts on the subject are also worth reading for background: Is The Hukou System Really Disappearing? and Hukou Reforms Under Consideration.
Mr. Minzner is Associate Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and formerly Senior Counsel to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.]
Is Yunnan "Eliminating" the Hukou System?
Short answer – no. At least one website has reported that recent reforms undertaken by the provincial government of Yunnan will "eliminate" the household registration (hukou) system. This isn't the case.
The announced Yunnan reforms will eliminate the distinction between "agricultural" and "non-agricultural" hukou status, according to an October 25 Xinhua article. Similar reforms have been announced by a number of other provinces and municipalities. But they do not affect the requirement that migrants obtain local hukou in urban areas to receive public services and benefits on an equal basis with other urban residents.
The proposed Yunnan reforms will require migrants to urban areas to have a "fixed place of living" and a "stable source of income" in order to shift their hukou registration to an urban area. According to the Xinhua article, the Yunnan reforms define "fixed place of living" as property ownership of a home in an urban area, or possession of one allocated by one's work unit prior to 1995. How many rural migrants satisfy that condition?
The Yunnan reforms actually look almost identical in content to those announced by dozens of other provinces and municipalities. For more information, see these posts (Is The Hukou System Really Disappearing?, Hukou Reforms Under Consideration), the topic paper of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), and this list of similar reforms.
There is one interesting aspect of the Yunnan reforms. According to the Xinhua report, they define "stable source of income" as the ability to support oneself without resort to government minimum standard of living subsidies. Other local reforms I've seen define the term as professional employment or ownership of a business. The Yunnan reforms would seem to adopt a relatively less restrictive definition of this term. This may reflect new policy directions announced by Chinese central authorities over the summer.
Posted by Richard at 1:44 PM | Comments (0)November 3, 2007
Diamonds for the Chinese Masses
Baseball for the Chinese masses? The State Department sending Cal Ripken to Shanghai? Yes, yes, I know something of the hallowed traditions of Japanese baseball and more recently the Taiwanese leagues. Those were begun on sandlots by boys imitating the American soldiers stationed on military bases, and they grew organically.
In the case of China, as with so much else, Chinese "interest" in the sport, of which there is extraordinarily little, is a top down affair, undoubtedly spurred on by the highest levels of sporting administration simply as a result of baseball's inclusion as an Olympic sport. Although eliminated from the 2012 Games, baseball may return in 2016. Surely, there is some long-term planning going on in the General Administration of Sport.
From the American State Department's viewpoint, what is the value in assisting a fledgling Chinese Olympic effort? Not, apparently, the expansion of commerce for sporting goods makers, whose manufacturing base has been China for many years. (Think about it, Mr. Rawlings said to his underlings, a glove for every boy in China! If it had never been said aloud, it was surely thought.)
An effort in fostering Friendship between the Great Chinese People and the Great American People? (That phrase circa 1975.) If so, the substance of our relations has not ventured far from Ping-Pong Diplomacy, but surely it has.
It looks more like a charm offensive. If media is to be believed, and I am not suggesting it should, much of the world has recently come to think very poorly of America. Baseball, strongly identified with the American, is a happy game -- a typically American pastime that might be used to get good press at a time of extraordinary need.
Baseball in China -- bizzare meeting place of the American tendency to proselytize; a State Department whose public relations operates in crisis mode; an aggresively competitive Chinese officialdom; and little boys who just want to play. I hope the kids have at least some fun while the adults make use of them for their own ends.
Posted by Richard at 3:26 PM | Comments (0)
