Perspectives on Chinese Business and Law: The Book

Just finished reading (most of) the book, Perspectives on Chinese Business and Law and I very much liked it.

This book lists four professors as its writers: one from Poland, one from Belgium, and two from China. More specifically, its authors are Dr Łukasz Gołota, Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Relations, Warsaw University (where I was a guest professor earlier this month!), Dr Jiaxiang Hu, Professor of Law at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Dr Kim Van Der Borght, Professor of International Economic Law & Diplomacy at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, and Saisai Wang, Lecturer of Law at the Law School of the Shandong University of Finance and Economics. It also includes a number of additional authors who wrote or co-wrote a chapter.

I start out mentioning the authors because in some respects this is an academic book, but I nonetheless found it extremely helpful on practical Chinese legal issues that impact foreign companies doing business in China. The book consists of the following twelve chapters:

1. Evolution of the Chinese Economic Model and Its International Implications
2. Domestic Political and Economic System of China
3. EU-China Economic and Trade Relations
4. The Idea of “Law” in China: An Overview
5. An Introduction to the Civil Procedure System
6. Foreign Related Commercial Arbitration in China
7. Contract Law
8. Chinese Company Law
9. Chinese Foreign Direct Investment Law
10. Establishment of Overseas Branches of Chinese Companies in the EU
11. Regulation of Financial Services in China
12. Chinese Intellectual Property Rights

All of the chapters are well written and useful, but I found chapters 5-9 and 11-12 particularly helpful for foreign companies looking to do business in China. In fact, a number of these chapters were the clearest English language writing I’ve seen on their topics. Its Amazon blurb quite accurately describes what you can expect:

Perspectives on Chinese Business and Law contributes to the debate and understanding on China by offering insights and perspectives from both Chinese and European scholars on themes related to business and economic affairs. The current foreign trade and business-related legal framework of China are expressed along with certain historical and political analysis on China’s development.  This book offers different perspectives on China’s business and law. It aims to offer an introduction into both theoretical and practical aspects of China’s law on foreign related business affairs. This comprises economic and political background information, including China’s economic evolution and China-EU trade relations, in addition to more detailed information on selected subject areas important to foreign related business affairs in China, namely: commercial arbitration law; contract law; company law; IPR protection; financial law; foreign direct investment law; and also the establishment of overseas branches of Chinese companies in the EU.

I highly recommend this book to lawyers who represent companies that do business in or with China, to academics seeking a better understanding of Chinese law, and to anyone else seeking a high level understanding of Chinese law.

We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.