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Underwater cultural heritage (UCH) means all traces of human existence having a cultural or historical character which have been lain underwater for a certain period of time. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a major planning tool employed by States for the purpose of coordinating various sea uses and achieving sustainable development of the sea and coastal areas. Among various sea uses, the protection of underwater cultural heritage has often been overlooked. Fortunately, people have already realized the importance of underwater cultural heritage. How to integrate the UCH protection into MSP is a common challenge for all States around the globe. In China, the integration of UCH protection into MSP is also considered a problem awaiting immediate solution. The present study will review the relevant legislation of China and its implementation. Existing problems and possible solutions will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main hypothesis of this article is a possibility of creating a new convention by China and Russia for protecting the fundamental human right to freedom of religion and conscience on a new international level, independent from the West. The need of developing such a convention or even a new international organization is conditioned by the withdrawal of Russia from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights. We suggest that this cooperation can be beneficial for both parties because it should help secure their sovereignty and improve the implementation of national legislations. The aim of our research is to propose measures of increasing the efficiency of realization of freedom of religion and conscience in China in Russia. In oder to reach it, we employed such methods of legal comparativistics as functional, normative and external comparative analysis and studied the Chinese and Russian specifics of the legal recognition and protection of this right. The findings of our study suggest that the existing limitations of it should be seen as a response to challenges China and Russia have been facing as developing multicultural and policonfessional states. We also discovered that despite its cultural, ideological and political differences, Russia and China share a number of almost identical mechanisms for the realisation of religious liberty. We see it as a solid proof that a necessary common ground for further beneficial cooperation between Russia and China in protection of human rights and freedoms, already exists. Given the results, we proposed a set of measures to increase the realisation of the right to freedom of religion and conscience in both countries, among which are: 1) development of new terminology; 2) separation of this right in two legal institutions; 3) establishment of a fixed lists of reasons for their limitations.

The ISSCR recently released new guidelines that relaxed the 14-day rule taking away the tough barrier, and this has rekindled relevant ethical controversies and posed a fresh set of challenges to each nation’s legislations and policies directly or indirectly. To understand its broad implications and the variation and impact of China’s relevant national policies, we reviewed and evaluated Chinese laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules, and normative documents on fundamental and preclinical research involving human embryos from 1985 to 2022 in this paper. We have historically examined whether these regulations, including a 14-day rule, had restrictions on human embryo research, and whether and how these policies affected human embryo and embryoid research in China. We also discussed and assessed the backdrop in which China has endeavored to handle such as the need for expanding debates among justice practice, academia, and the public, and the shifting external environment influenced by fast-developing science and technology and people’s culture and religions. In general, Chinese society commonly opposes giving embryos or fetuses the legal status of humans, presumably due to the Chinese public not seeming to have any strong religious beliefs regarding the embryo. On this basis, they do not strongly oppose the potential expansion of the 14-day rule. After the guidelines to strengthen governance over ethics in science, and technology were released by the Chinese government in 2022, Chinese policymakers have incorporated bioethics into the national strategic goals using a “People-Centered” approach to develop and promote an ecological civilization. Specifically, China follows the “precautionary principle” based on ethical priority as it believes that if scientific research carries any potential technological and moral risks on which no social ethical consensus has been attained, there would be a need to impose oversight for prevention and precaution. At the same time, China has adopted a hybrid legislative model of legislation and ethical regulations with criminal, civil and administrative sanctions and a 14-day limit specified within its national hESCs guidelines. This would certainly be a useful example for other countries to use when considering the possibility of developing a comprehensive, credible and sustainable regulatory framework.

Abstract This paper aims to discuss Chinese legislation in the exploration of marine mineral resources and its adoption in the Arctic Ocean. The journey commences by providing comments on the 'Law of the People's Republic of China on the Exploration and Development of Resources in the Deep Seabed Area' and to explore Chinese domestic legislation regulating Chinese enterprises' development activities in the Arctic area. Attention also pays to legislation regulating Chinese and foreign enterprises in the exploitation of mineral resources in China's continental shelf with special concern toward the protection of ecological environment. This paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need to further improve Chinese domestic legislation and draw on advanced legislative experience from various States and international law, in order to provide strong domestic legal protection for exploitation activities. Highlights • China is keen to participate in the Arctic affairs, seeking to build the, 'Ice Silk Road'. • China is concerned about the development and utilisation of the mineral resources in the Arctic. • China also focuses on the effective protection of the Arctic eco-environment. • There is a need to further improve Chinese domestic legislation regarding the Arctic exploration. • Lessons can be drawn from States practice concerning protection for exploitation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On February 26, 2016, PRC Law on the Exploration and Development of Resources in Deep Seabed Areas was adopted. As a landmark marine legislation, this law was formulated in line with the UNCLOS, the Rules of the International Seabed Authority, and the PRC Constitution. It opened a brand new era of marine development and utilization for China under the strategic background of maritime power. Facing the limitation and challenges about the ecosystem and risk prevention brought about by the UNCLOS and the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992, the maritime powers around the world, including China, have been making domestic legislation on the exploitation and protection of seabed resources beyond national jurisdiction. This paper introduces China's policy for the exploitation and development of the 'Areas' in accordance with the UNCLOS, and makes a further interpretation on China's related domestic legislations and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has regulated all religious activity in the public domain for many years. The state has generally considered religious groups as representing a potential challenge to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees one of its basic roles as making sure religion neither interferes with the state’s exercise of power nor harms its citizens. A revised Regulation on Religious Affairs (Zongjiao shiwu tiaoli 宗教事务条例) took effect in 2018, updating the regulation of 2005. This paper aims to introduce and examine the content of the regulation, especially how it differs from its predecessor and how the changes are likely to affect religious groups in China. The Catholic church in China has historical links to the worldwide Catholic church, so articles in the new regulation which seek to curb foreign influence on Chinese religious groups may have more of an effect on Chinese Catholics than on other groups. The paper addresses two main questions: How does the new regulation affect the Catholic church and what strategies are employed by the Catholic church in order to comply with the regulation? The research is based on textual analysis of the relevant legal documents and on field research conducted in the People Republic of China (PRC). The fieldwork consisted of open interviews with several church members and official representatives of the church conducted in Zhejiang Province between March and May 2018, and in May and June 2019. The paper thus aims to analyze contemporary Chinese religious legislation with respect to the lived experience of Catholics in China.

With fish stocks declining and fishing control improving, the delineation of rights and restrictions over fisheries resources for small-scale fisheries needs to be attached with more attention globally. As China's social and economic environment changes, Chinese traditional fishers have also been facing growing challenges in maintaining their customary fisheries operation. With this as the core issue to be addressed, this paper examines the legislative status of fisheries tenure rights in China and the judicial opinions on disputes involving overlapping users' rights to fisheries-related resources. It adopts a qualitative empirical analysis by reviewing two cases between long-practicing fishers and other entities and by generalizing nine other cases with similar factual backgrounds. It finds that the ambiguous tenure rights legislation in China cannot provide a solid basis for Chinese traditional fishers to affect fisheries-related decision-making processes. As a result, Chinese courts give incompatible judgments without sufficient consideration of traditional fishers' customary tenure rights. A normative analysis of traditional fishers' tenure arrangement in China is also rendered, mainly by drawing on the guidelines of FAO on sustainable small-scale fisheries. Then, this article provides suggestions for legislative improvement with a human rights dimension, including enhancing traditional fishers' participation in decision-making processes and strengthening their property rights protection. This article offers a new perspective on the relationship between traditional fishers' well-being, administrative powers, and legislative and judicial protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By exploring the meaning construction of Chinese citizenship stipulated in Chinese legislation and its interaction with social identities and human nature in the Chinese society, the present study investigates the nature and evolution of the conception of Chinese citizens through three selected cases from Chinese legislations, which illuminate that Chinese citizens are essentially persons with independent personalities defined by the rights and obligations stipulated in legislation. This conception is further strengthened by the entitlement to private properties and equality before law. This conception of Chinese citizenship is concrete and meaningful in the sense that it is underpinned with reference to social identities as person, people and personality in Chinese legislations. The reference of the conception to human being constitutes the essence of Chinese legislation. The meaning construction of Chinese citizenship is indeed a dynamic process engineered in the social and cultural process. The findings on the evolution of the construction of Chinese citizenship in Chinese legislation suggest that the formation of legal identity through legislation varies greatly in different countries. Nevertheless, the realization of the conception of citizenship will necessarily be backed up by social identities as person, people and personality, which will be further strengthened and expanded by the legitimating of private properties and equality before law. Citizenship is achieved by social participants through mediation engineered within the social and cultural process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has regulated all religious activity in the public domain for many years. The state has generally considered religious groups as representing a potential challenge to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees one of its basic roles as making sure religion neither interferes with the state's exercise of power nor harms its citizens. A revised Regulation on Religious Affairs (Zongjiao shiwu tiaoli 宗教事务条例) took effect in 2018, updating the regulation of 2005. This paper aims to introduce and examine the content of the regulation, especially how it differs from its predecessor and how the changes are likely to affect religious groups in China. The Catholic church in China has historical links to the worldwide Catholic church, so articles in the new regulation which seek to curb foreign influence on Chinese religious groups may have more of an effect on Chinese Catholics than on other groups. The paper addresses two main questions: How does the new regulation affect the Catholic church and what strategies are employed by the Catholic church in order to comply with the regulation? The research is based on textual analysis of the relevant legal documents and on field research conducted in the People Republic of China (PRC). The fieldwork consisted of open interviews with several church members and official representatives of the church conducted in Zhejiang Province between March and May 2018, and in May and June 2019. The paper thus aims to analyze contemporary Chinese religious legislation with respect to the lived experience of Catholics in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]