China's Influence On Non-Trade Concerns In International Economic Law

Maastricht University, Faculty of Law

Professor Paolo Farah organised with a grant from China-EU School of Law (CESL) in Beijing three conferences on China and Non-trade Issues. The first was held at the University of Turin (November 23-24, 2011), the second at Tsinghua University and the third was hosted by the Faculty of Law of the Maastricht University, the Netherlands, January 19-20, 2012.

Hall of fame at Maastricht University, Faculty of Law

The papers of the speakers presented will be collected in a book edited by Professor Farah called "China's Influence on Non-Trade Concerns in International Economic Law", will be published by Ashgate Publishing (UK), forthcoming in 2012. Beside the English version, there will be an Italian, Hungarian and Chinese version of the book, thanks to the CESL in Beijing.

Law scholars at Faculty of Law, Maastricht University

Professor Farah describes what non-trade concerns of international trade are and why they are of crucial importance: "Both public opinion and policy makers fear that international trade, in particular a further liberalization thereof, may undermine or jeopardize policies and measures on a wide variety of issues, for example, the protection of the environment and a sustainable development, good governance, cultural rights, labour rights, public health, social welfare, national security, food safety, access to knowledge, consumer interests and animal welfare." The list is not exhaustive and includes intellectual property rights.

Professor Paolo Farah

This author had the honour to present his paper 'Rise and Demise of U.S. Social Media in China' at the last conference hosted by the Faculty of Law of the Maastricht University. It is about how U.S. social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were cloned by Chinese social media sites, RenRen, Sina Weibo and Youku, then blocked from China, and then the Chinese clones got funding in the U.S. at the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.

Speakers from right to left
Professor Anselm Kamperman Sanders, Arianna Broggiato, Danny Friedmann, Rogier Creemers

On January 19, the programme for experts included:
Professor Farah of the University of Turin and visiting scholar of Harvard Law School (East Asian Studies) and Professor Thomas Christiansen of Maastricht University, Political Science Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, discussed the EU External Action toward China on Non-Trade Concerns in International Economic Law.

Professor Thomas Christiansen

Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) in Brussels, was talking about fair trade and the new EU policies on Corporate Social Responsibility and Development.

Sergi Corbalán

Benjamin Barton of King's College of London, gave a presentation about the EU, China and international development.

Benjamin Barton

Professor Anselm Kamperman Sanders of the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University gave a presentation on China-EU Relations in the Field of Intellectual Property Law. He is not only Intellectual Property Law, Director of the Advanced Masters Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management (IPKM LLM/MSc), and Academic Director of the Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR), but also Director of the Annual Intellectual Property Law School and IP Seminar of the Institute for European Studies of Macau (IEEM), Macau SAR, China.

Professor Anselm Kamperman Sanders

Arianna Broggiato, BIOGOV UNit, Université Catholique de Louvain, Centre for the Philosophy of Law (CPDR) talked about Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge at the Crossroads of Intellectual Property and the Environmental Regime.

Rogier Creemers, who made a transfer from Maastricht University to the Centre of Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University presented his paper called Cultural Products and the WTO: China's Domestic Censorship and Media Control Policies. Rogier has an interesting blog called China Copyright and Media.

Rogier Creemers

On January 20, the programme focused on public health, product and food safety and consumer protection. Lukasz Gruszczynski of the Law Institute of the Polish Academy of Science talked about product safety in the framework of the WTO agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

Lukasz Gruszczynski

Denise Prevost of Faculty of Law of the Maastricht University discussed her paper Health Protection Measures as Barriers to EU Exports to China in the framework of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.

Denise Prevost

Enrico Bonadio of the Law School of the City University of London presented his paper on Plain Packaging of Cigarettes and Public Health under the TRIPs Agreement.

Enrico Bonadio

Paolo Vergano of FratiniVergano European Laywers in Brussels gave a Practitioner's Perspective on Specific Non-Trade Concerns in the Areas of Food Safety and Consumer Protection: A Comparative Analysis of WTO Notifications.

Paolo Vergano

Lorenzo di Masi presented his paper on The Protection of Public Health and Food Safety in East Asia Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs): ASEAN and China.

Lorenzo di Masi

Maastricht city on the banks of the Maas

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Keep the May Calendar Free For IP events in Hong Kong and Macao

IP Dragon's friend Anselm Kamerman Sanders of Maastricht University organised this time two interesting events in Hong Kong and Macao.

The events are organised by the Institute for European Studies of Macau and Maastricht University Faculty of Law. For the Hong Kong leg it is co-organised by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Annual Professional IP Update, followed by the 12th Annual IEEM IP Seminar, May 21-24

The Annual Professional Update provides an overview of all relevant cases and legislative developments of the past year from all over the world. During one day you will be brought up to speed on the major important legal decisions and developments in intellectual property law and policy.

Location for Saturday 21 May: Graduate Law Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong

The two-days Annual Intellectual Property Seminar offers a forum for IP professionals wishing to be part of a thought-provoking discussion on cutting-edge developments in intellectual propety law and policy. Distinguished practitioners, judges and academics from all over the world have contributed to this event. The papers they have presented have been published in book form by Kluwer Law International and Hart Publishing.

In 2011 the 12th Annual IP Seminar's topic will be:

Consumers, Facilitators, and Intermediaries - IP Infringers or Innocent Bystanders?

A group of distinguished speakers has been confirmed to speak on issues such as ISP liability, unwarranted threats to primary and secondary infringers, contributory and secondary liability for patent and copyright infringement, Google ads and trademark infringement, liability for transporters and freighters, time and geo-shifting devices and services, eBay and trademark infringement, and the impact of sporting events legislation on the public sphere.

Location for 23-24 May: Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16, Macao

Speakers include inter alia: Irene Calboli (Marquette University) Christopher Heath (EPO), Byung-Il Kim (Hanyang University), David Llewelyn (White & Case), Jan Nordemann (University of Berlin), Anselm Kamperman Sanders (Maastricht University), Pascale Trefigny (University of Grenoble), Tasuhiro Ueno (University of Tokyo), Bryan Mercurio (Chinese University of Hong Kong). They will be joined by local Hong Kong and Macau practitioners.

For updated information check the site of the Maastricht University here.

But Professor Kamperman Sanders has even more on offer:

The Intellectual Property Law School - 16 until 20 May 2011

The IP Law School is an initiative in Asia offering a taught programme in international Intellectual Property Law and its relevance for global, European and Asian economic development and innovation policy.

"The IP Law School is extremely suited for trainee lawyers, Intellectual Property professionals with an economic or policy background, and master students in Intellectual Property wishing to enhance their skills at post-academic level. Starting from the basics of the Paris and Berne conventions, the course covers the development of Intellectual Property Law all the way to the WTO TRIPS Agreement and the WIPO Copyright treaties. Attention is also devoted to regional arrangements, such as the European Patent Convention, and other new international and national initiatives. From a policy perspective free trade agreements and bilateral investment arrangements covering Intellectual Property, as well as ongoing negotiations in the area of protection of traditional knowledge will be covered."

Classes are offered in an intensive Socratic format in the course of one week by experts in the field.
There are substantial concessions for students wishing to follow the whole week-and-a-half.

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Featured Blog of the Week: China Media News

Torsten Weise, who is based in Berlin, translates headlines and news of Chinese media on media into English on this interesting blog called China Media News, which he started in May 2010. Mr Weise gives advice to publishers (Weise Verlagsberatung) that want to be active on the Chinese market. Those interested into media and the protection and enforcement of copyright in China could benefit from reading his blog, next to the always excellent Danwei.com by Jeremy Goldkorn in Beijing and superniche blog about copyright in China site of my friend Rogier Creemer, China Copyright and Media, straight from Maastricht Univerity.

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From the Trenches of IP Education in China

It is great when practitioners of IP law in China share their knowledge with the next generation. Mr Stan Abrams, working at DLA Piper in Beijing made time for teachting at Central University of Finance and Economics (a co-operation programme between Cai Da, the University of Maryland and the University of Maastricht). Mr Abrams' students are from the US, EU and China. Average classes are about 20 students. The IP lectures are part of a "China legal issues" class that includes a lot of other stuff. IP was five hours.

IP Dragon asked Mr Abrams about the educational goal he wants to achieve.
Mr Abrams: "I wanted to impart some practical lessons instead of just repeat what the law provides for. I also wanted to relate current law and legal reform to economic development policy and politics. I think there is a strong correlation between the two and can tell us where things are heading. Finally, I also wanted to give them not only the practitioner's perspective, but also that of foreign companies doing business in China, i.e., my clients."

Hear hear for this lofty goal. And for those who cannot attend Mr Abrams' classes, tune in at his excellent blog China Hearsay.

UPDATE: IP Dragon had contact with Mr Daniel J. Mitterhoff, Director, CUFE-Maryland-Maastricht, the Collaborative Law Student Exchange Program. Thank you Mr. Mitterhoff for adding the following information:

Our program at the Law School of Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) is currently entitled the CUFE-Maryland-Maastricht Collaborative Student Exchange Program. Its long term mission is to create a bilingual learning environment (if not a bilingual law school) with students from around the globe participating. In the short term, it works like this: Students from University from Maryland School of Law and Maastricht University Faculty of Law come to CUFE in the autumn semester. They are grouped with students from CUFE, most of whom have already be designated to visit Maryland and Maastricht in the spring semester. This year we also have students from other schools visiting China, but they are not part of the exchange. The students study together and even conduct joint research.

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8th Annual IEEM IP Seminar in Macau

Professor Anselm Kamperman Sanders of the Maastricht University, the Netherlands, informed me about The International Intellectual Property Law and Pharmaceuticals conference organised by Dr. Christopher Heath, Member of the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office (EPO) and himself. It will be the 8th Annual IP Seminar to be organised at the Instituto de Estudos Europeus de Macau (IEEM) from June 25 through 26 2007.

The agenda of the full programme is:
4th IEEM IP Law School June, 18-22 2007;
8th IEEM IP Seminar June, 25-26, 2007;
4th IEEM IP Master classes June, 27-29, 2007.

About this programme:

"Classes are offered in an intensive Socratic format in the course of one week by experts in the field Dr. Christopher Heath, of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office, Prof. Anselm Kamperman Sanders, of Maastricht University, and local guest speakers who offer a Chinese perspective on Intellectual Property Law.

"This challenging programme also expects students to jointly prepare and argue several moot cases in a friendly, yet competitive atmosphere, providing a unique insight in the way in which participants from various jurisdictions approach international and domestic legal problems.
The IP Law School offers an excellent opportunity to prepare or refresh one’s knowledge before the 8th Annual IP Seminar and the subsequent IP Master Classes.

"IP Master Classes offer the opportunity to learn from an expert in a particular sub-discipline of Intellectual Property Law. Whereas the IP Master Classes follow the same Socratic format of the IP Law School, including the opportunity to argue mock trials, they are much more topical and are taught jointly by the regular IP Law School team and other expert speakers from the IP Seminar. This means that IP Master Classes form a seamless companion programme to the annual Intellectual Property Seminar."

See more here.

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