Publications

Company A, a US funded enterprise in Jiangsu, and Company B, a Japanese funded enterprise in Shanghai, have signed a sales contract, in which stipulates that in the event of a dispute, either party may submit it to an arbitration institution in Hong Kong for arbitration. Is this agreement valid? A typical viewpoint is that one of the basic principles of civil laws is the “autonomy of will”, and such agreements should be valid. In fact, such viewpoint is incorrect. The attitude of the Supreme People’s Court is very clear. In Article 83 of the “Answers to Practical Issues in…

At noon on July 31, 2017, Wong completed his resignation procedures and left the company. Unexpectedly, Wong was dead in a traffic accident on his way home. He was not liable in this accident. Wong’s family filed an application for work-related injury recognition, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Shanghai Pudong New District approved the application. The company refused to accept this recognition, and filed an administrative lawsuit against the bureau. Both the courts of the first instance and second instance supported the bureau. ((2018) Hu 01 Xing Zhong No.1436). According to Article 14, Paragraph 6 of the…

At the end of November 2023, a judgment by the Beijing Internet Court sparked heated discussions. In this case, the plaintiff used AI to generate images and published them on Xiaohongshu (an app), the defendant used those images in his article. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit to the court on the grounds of copyright infringement. The first instance judgment of the Beijing Internet Court held that the images generated by AI in this case should be deemed as “works” protected by the “Copyright Law”, so the defendant has constituted a copyright infringement. In this case, the Beijing Internet Court pointed…

The labor contract signed between a company in Beijing and Tian is valid until October 8, 2021. The company sent a renewal notice to Tian on October 8, 2021, but the two parties did not reach an agreement on the renewal afterwards. Later, Tian filed a labor arbitration, one of his claims is that he requested the company to pay compensation for failure to provide 30 days prior notice. The labor arbitration, the court of the first instance, and the court of the second instance all supported this claim ((2023) Jing 02 Min Zhong 7836). Many people may be surprised…

In order to contribute to the community and enhance awareness for brands, many companies would sponsor public service activities, themed conference, competitions, and etc., no matter voluntarily or not. Such sponsorship is supposed to be a win-win event, but if the sponsorship is implemented in a wrong way, it may bring risks to those companies. Generally, the risks related to sponsorship include the following: Firstly, it may constitute commercial bribery. Companies provide sponsorship for gain competitive advantages may be recognized as commercial bribery by administrative authorities and judicial authorities, because such sponsorships may be deemed as violations of the “Anti-unfair…

At the end of each year, various business gatherings and enterprises’ annual parties are typical programs. Alcohol is one of the links in those activities. Some people may be tipsy, some people may get drunk, and some people may die. If an individual died due to drinking too much alcohol in a business gathering, whether such death could be identified as a work-related injury? It depends. Firstly, if an employee got drunk and met the intoxication standard, such circumstance shall not be identified as a work-related injury. Both Article 37 of the “Social Security Law” and Article 16 of the…

In order to effectively constrain the counterparty’s behavior and reduce the risk of breach of contract, a contract may prescribe more than one liability for breach of contract regarding the same behavior. For example, if a party failed to pay on due date, it shall bear the interest for overdue payment, in addition, it shall also bear the liquidated damages for overdue payment. When a contract prescribes different liabilities for breach of contract regarding the same behavior, whether the non-defaulting party could claim for all? It shall be determined case by case. Regarding lending contracts, the current judicial interpretation has…

The biggest headache for the HR department is the fake sick leave, such as, an employee went to a hospital and registered for an appointment with the doctor, however, he left after got the registration receipt; an employee brought a fake sick leave certificate; or an employee asked for sick leave regarding his back pain continually. In order to eliminate the fake sick leave, many enterprises require employees to submit documents related to sick leave in their rules and regulations. Those documents including registration receipts, sick leave certificates, medical records, drug lists, inspection reports, hospitalization summaries, etc., by which the…

Recently, we received a consultation from company A, stating that its counterparty had breached the contract, whether they could “Tanking”? For example, they can suspend the supply. When there is an economic downturn, defaults become common. Many companies may have the same concern as company A. From the perspective of litigation, such concern involves the issue of fulfilling the First Performance of the Right of Defense. Article 526 of the “Civil Code” stipulates that, “Where both parties have obligations towards each other and there is an order of priority in respect of the performance of the obligations, and the party…

A company with a longer history may have more senior managers who are going to retire. The successors are ambitious. As the old saying goes, “There is a radish in every pit”, so there must be conflicts of interest between those senior managers and their successors. In Japan, many companies implement a “fixed service year system”, which means that companies would adjust the positions of those senior managers from the management positions to the assistant positions or other specialized positions. The purpose is to vacate the “pit”, allowing the successors to have longer time to take over relevant responsibilities. Then,…