My published book reviews are available here.
强世功教授对“不成文宪法”以及中国宪政秩序的研究， Nomos (Peking University Center for Studies in Politics and Law) Jan. 30. 2013, available http://www.pkujuris.com/xrzl/researcher/1/2013-01-30/300.html.
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ABSTRACT: 强世功①教授发表过一篇关于中国宪政体制的文章：“Written and Unwritten Constitutions： A New Approach to the Study of Constitutional Government in China”（中文版题为《中国宪法中的不成文宪法——理解中国宪法的新视角》）②，以下是这篇文章的摘要：
批评过去30年以来中国宪政研究的形式主义局限性，本文从中国宪法文本与宪政实践之间的背离问题入手，提出了从实践历史角度来理解中国宪政秩序的新思路。笔者认为，成文宪法和不成文宪法都是任何宪政体制所具有的基本特征。因此，理解中国的宪政秩序必须要充分考虑到中国的不成文宪法。本文选择中国宪法中关于国家建构中四个关键性问题，着重探讨中国不成文宪法的四个主要渊源，即成文宪章、宪法惯例、宪法学说及宪法性法律，并呼吁宪法学应当从中国现实的宪政生活中提炼具有普遍意义的宪政原理和制度。
我认为强世功所提出的“中国宪法中的不成文宪法”值得认真研究。本文将对上述文章进行评论与探讨。
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Larry Catá Backer and Keren Wang, “‘What is China’s Dream?’ HU Angang Imagines China in 2020 as the First Internationally Embedded Superpower” (Reviewing HU Angang, China in 2020: A New Type of Superpower (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-8157-9478-2 pp. i-xl; 2013), CPE Working Paper No. 2013/2 (February 2013).
ACCESS WORKING PAPER HERE.
ABSTRACT: HU Angang, one of this generation’s most influential academic thinkers, has applied his considerable analytic skills to theorize the future of China in his most recent book, China in 2020: A New Type of Superpower. The book represents an effort to add authoritative Chinese voices to the Western debates about China, written to observe China as an insider, to understand China as a researcher, to forecast China’s future as a participant in its evolution, and as a scholar of the era following Deng Xiaoping, to help construct China. This review will consider HU’s analysis from two perspectives. The first focuses on the contextual perspective of the historical development and future path of the People’s Republic of China. The second focuses on the theoretical perspective, analyzing the framework within which strong state influences will be structured increasingly in this century. This review is divided into three broad sections. Part A of this review starts with a short assessment of the framing context within which it was produced for Western audiences. Part B then turns to the heart of Hu Angang’s work. Critical attention will be placed on the theoretical framework developed in the bookend chapters. Part C then considers the bulk of Hu’s analysis — the way that framework informs the opportunities and challenges in economics, population management, environmental, organizational and other key respects. To understand those challenges for China, one must also to understand the challenges for the proper practice and development of the Chinese Communist Party within China as well as on the international stage. Hu suggests here the contours of a seamless merger of domestic and internal policies grounded in China’s substantive political norms, now harmonized with global internationalism.
Keywords: China,economic development, Communist Party, population policy, environment, sustainability, reform
JEL Classification: E11, I30, K33, O11, O53, P33, Z10
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Book Review (Fabio Bassan, The Law of Sovereign Wealth Funds (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd., 2011. 171 pp.), 28(3) Banking and Finance Law Review 557-563 (2010-2011) (published 2013); earlier version at 2012 Bi-Annual Legal Report, Sovereign Wealth Fund Center (Rome, Italy) (2012).
PRE-PUBLICATION VERSION HERE: Review Essay: Taking a Step Toward a Law for Sovereign Wealth Funds
ABSTRACT: Sovereign Wealth Funds are emerging as financial superpowers without a correspondingly proportionate regulatory structure. Fabio Bassan has sought to step into this gap with a proposal for a law of SWFs. He is largely successful, but he also succeeds in illuminating the road yet left to travel. in The Law of Sovereign Wealth Funds. Fabio Bassan has taken on a very great challenge. He would provide a legal structure for sovereign wealth fund (SWF) regulation, and simultaneously, he would interrogate the consequences of the sovereign character of projections of private power between states. But the world he describes is both unified by the logic of globalization[6] and fragmented within it. It is that tension that Dr. Bassan illuminates and seeks to bridge with increasing precision even as he develops a precise system of regulatory unification.
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The Drama Of Corporate Law: Corporate Narrative Between Policy And Law, 2009 Michigan State Law Review 1111 (Reviewing David A. (Bert) Westbrook, Between Citizen And State: An Introduction To The Corporation. Boulder, Co, Paradigm Press 2007. + 176 Pp. Hardback ISBN-13 978-1594514043).
Governing Corporations: Corporate Social Responsibility And The Obligations Of States, 25 Berkeley Journal of International Law 503 (2008) (Reviewing Jennifer A. Zerk, Multinationals And Corporate Social Responsibility: Limitations And Opportunities In International Law. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press 2006. Xxviii + 339 Pp. Hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-844994).
An “All Round” Education In the Regionalism Driving Comparative Law, 1(2) The J. Comp. L. 243 (2006) (Reviewing Smits, Jan M., ed. Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law. Cheltenham, England/Northampton, Mass., Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd., 2006. xviii + 782 pp. Casebound. ISBN -13:978 1 84542 013 X).
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