How competition ideals are emasculated in key industries in China, and pathways to reform

China’s adoption of its European Union-style Anti-Monopoly Law 2007 was heralded with great fanfare. However, some thirteen years following adoption, the 2007 Law’s aims appear neutered by the 2007 Law’s so-called “public interest” feature: normal competition protection objectives appear to be sidelined in the pursuit of wider industrial policy goals, even to the extent that obviously anti-competitive market practices are tolerated across the industrial and services landscape. Via a series of original case studies, the Authors demonstrate how China’s approach markedly diverges from European Union competition ideals, in turn raising the significant question of whether competition philosophy has been accepted in China. The Authors address the current unsatisfactory situation, setting out detailed proposals for substantive and structural reform, aimed at enhancing the regulatory institutions so that their enforcement competence is not compromised. Drawing on European Union judicial architecture and practice, the Article also makes proposals designed to enhance the capacity of the enforcement institutions, all with a view towards enhancing the acceptance of universally understood competition norms in China’s political and administrative-dominated business culture

Tackling Human Trafficking in Governments Supply Chains: Legal Certainty & Effectiveness Issues Under the Australian Commonwealth Procurement Rules Model

International organisations emphasise how Governments around the world must use the public procurement process to aid a global drive to eliminate human trafficking in their supply chains. In this significant and original contribution, the authors examine a leading procurement model, the Australian Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPR), for the purpose of examining whether the CPR model satisfies the necessary standards of Legal Certainty and Effectiveness for addressing the risk of trafficking occurring in public sector supply chains. The research generates new insights for countries seeking to tackle trafficking via public procurement systems, and identifies pitfalls for countries to avoid if seeking to emulate the Australia CPR model, making appropriate reference to US and UK models where appropriate. The authors demonstrate how key elements of the CPR model fail to provide for the required degree of legal certainty and effectiveness to tackle trafficking, with system failure demonstrated by analysis of key CPR provisions which either fail to satisfy these 2 key tests, or because of the complete absence of appropriate provisions to comprehensively deal with the risk of trafficking in public sector supply chains. This article should serve not only as a guide to countries yet to address human rights considerations in their public procurement supply chains, but also as a blueprint for countries around the world seeking to re-evaluate whether existing provisions in their domestic procurement framework are fit to tackle the global scourge of trafficking in public supply chains