Law Commons^™

Regulating Sars In China: Law As An Antidote?, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

Severe Acute Respiratory Disease (SARS) is caused by a coronavirus, and as of this writing has no known vaccine or cure. Generally, the disease starts with a high fever, headaches, body aches, and mild respiratory symptoms. SARS spreads through respiratory droplets produced by an infected person when he or she coughs or sneezes or through physical contact.

The disease was first identified in a southern province of China in November of 2002, and quickly spread to twenty-seven different countries. In March of 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared SARS a global health threat. In China, the economic and social …

Informal Rules, Transaction Costs, And The Failure Of The “Takings” Law In China, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

The enforcement of China’s new takings law has failed. In the unbalanced tug-of-war between individual homeowners and deep pocketed developers, the government sided with the latter by changing zoning plans to fit commercial development, authorizing forced evictions, deploying judicial police to execute eviction orders, lowering compensation standards, instructing courts not to hear cases involving demolitions, blocking class actions, and more. Many Chinese scholars argue that lackluster enforcement can be remedied by a well-drafted property code. However, applying the New Institutional Economics’ (NIE) theory on institutions to the enforcement failure associated with the takings law draws attention to informal complaints, which …

Fighting Epidemics With Information And Laws: The Case Of Sars In China (Book Review), Vincent R. Johnson, Brian T. Bagley

Faculty Articles

In Chinese Law on SARS, Chenglin Liu recounts the tale of China’s efforts to cope with the recent SARS epidemic. The outbreak of SARS coincided with the full session of the 10th National People’s Congress, which elected a new Central Government in response to governmental failures in dealing with the crisis. The new government’s “proactive” approach to addressing the epidemic was to enact new legislation, republish an important law, and issue authoritative interpretations of existing criminal law provisions.

Liu offers a savvy analysis of why China’s centralized framework initially impeded the fight against SARS, and discusses the new government’s decisions …