The conference on the proposal of the Research on Technical Regulations Based on Rule of Law, National Governance and Global Governance, a major project of the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) presided over by Prof. Liu Jingwei from the College, was held online on the afternoon of 23 July, 2022.
Director of the Scientific Research Department of the CUPL Prof. Li Zheng moderated the meeting. Vice President of the University Prof. Shi Jianzhong presented the opening remarks. Dean of the School of Law of the Nankai University Prof. Song Hualin, Director of the Institute of Standardization Strategy of the China National Institute of Standardization Prof. Wang Yiyi, Dean of the School of Law and Economics of the CUPL Prof. Zhang Qing, Dean of the School of Law of the China Jiliang University Prof. Zhu Yifei, Director of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of Fujian Provincial People’s Congress Li Mingrong, Research Fellow of the Department of Standards Implementation and supervision of the Department of Standards and innovation of the State Administration for Market Supervision Prof. Tao Liang, Director of the Department No.3 of Evaluation of the National Centre of Standard Evaluation of the State Administration for Market Supervision Yu Limei and Dean of the School of Law of the Minjiang University Prof. Ruan Xiaoying formed the expert group of this project. Song Hualin is the group leader.
The leader of the sub-project Prof. Liu Chunqing from the China National Institute of Standardization, Executive Dean of the Institute of Market Regulation the University of International Business and Economics Prof. Li Jun and Dean of the School of Standardization of the China Jiliang University Prof. Zhang Pengyue participated in the meeting. A total of more than 30 people including other experts, scholars and project team members from the Tourism Quality Supervision and Administration Institute of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, the National Institute of Metrology of China, the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress, the Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Fujian Provincial Market Supervision Bureau and the Fujian Institute of Standardization attended the proposal.
In his speech, Shi Jianzhong congratulated Prof. Liu Jingwei and his team on their project being approved by the NSSFC. He also expressed his gratitude to all the expert guests from legal, standardization and legislative bodies, and fully affirmed the great theoretical and practical value of the research. He pointed out the theoretical and technical difficulties, and said that the Scientific Research Department of the University would provide this project with an all-round support.
Liu Jingwei, as the chief expert of the project, gave a detailed report to the expert group on the background and value of the project theme, the general framework and the expected goal, the structure and main content of the sub-project and the expected results of the project, and introduced the prophase research work of the subject and the arrangement for next steps. The leaders of the sub-project, Liu Chunqing, Zhang Pengyue and Li Jun, respectively reported on the research contents, research ideas and research plans of the sub-project.
After hearing the proposal, the expert group conducted a comprehensive review of the project. Various experts affirmed the preliminary work of the project, believing that it was based on the reality of the country, the research objectives were clear, the research contents were detailed, the research methods were appropriate, the research plan was comprehensive, and the preliminary results were fruitful. They all approved the proposal, and put forward suggestions on the study of the project.
Song Hualin believed that this project was the very first major technical regulations research sponsored by the National Social Science Fund, thus it is pioneering, but also has great difficulties. He emphasized on the problems that needed to be focused on in the sub-project, and suggested combing the development history of the country’s technical regulations and putting forward corresponding advice for legislative improvement. He also pointed out that this project is a multi-disciplinary, theoretical and practical research, so the team shall strengthen the contact with the academic circle of standardization and practical departments.
Wang Yiyi believed that the overall design of the project was reasonable and innovative, and suggested that the research focus on solving the following problems, including the relationship between the standardization system and the legal system, the connotation of “regulations” and “standards” in the “standard system of citing laws and regulations”, the concept discrimination of the compulsory standards and the technical regulations, and the establishment of the technical regulations system with Chinese characteristics.
Zhang Qing thought that this project was groundbreaking and suggested that the basic theoretical knowledge, such as the concept of technical regulations and the category of technical regulations, should be clarified, and it should explore the influence of using the theory of legal economics to consider technical legislation on market competition and social interests.
Zhu Yifei affirmed the significance and value of the project, and suggested to strengthen the research on the breadth and depth of the participation of technical regulations in the theory of rule of law, national governance and global governance, and to construct a systematic basic theoretical system of technical regulations.
Li Mingrong claimed that this project has great value for guiding our country’s legislation, judicature and administration. She suggested that under the background of building a unified national great market policy and strengthening the study of the Party’s guiding legislative thought, the team could focus on technical regulations and systems with Chinese characteristics that are compatible with China’s political and economic systems, in order to solve problems such as unclear definition of technical law, whether legislative power will be sidelined because of the use of standards in legislation, and how to carry out cross-regional technical legislation in coordination.
Tao Liang said that the “twelve theories” of technical regulations in the project are of great theoretical value for the construction of the “standard system for the citation of laws and regulations”, and that it put forward follow-up research-worthy issues like the relationship between technical regulations and standards, the legality review of technical regulations, the revision of technical regulations, the interpretation of technical regulations and the mode of quoting standards.
Yu Limei pointed out that the study of technical regulations should be carried out in the light of the role of international standards in national and global governance, and explained the need to focus on overcoming three major difficulties, including the difference between the standards of our laws and regulations and those of foreign public policies, the difference between technical regulations and mandatory standards and the path of the standards participating in global governance.
Ruan Xiaoying summarized the three characteristics of the project design, such as comprehensive guidance, multi-field innovation and multi-dimensional synergy, and suggested that the next study highlight the three orientations, that is, problem-oriented, demand-oriented and local characteristics-oriented, so as to enrich the subject research content.
In addition, Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress Lin Zhengmao, Head of the Standardization Department of the Tourism Quality Supervision and Administration Institute of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China Mou Lin and Deputy Director of the Strategic Centre of the National Institute of Metrology of China Yu Lianchao made valuable comments and suggestions on this project.
Song Hualin, as the head of the expert group, made a summary. Song said that the participation of the experts at the meeting made the meeting an academic feast for the collision of ideas, and the experts’ opinions and suggestions improved the content of the project. The discussion pointed out the direction of adjustment and optimization of technical regulations research from the perspectives of jurisprudence mining, multi-domain governance mechanism of technical regulations, international opening-up and technical regulations governance. He also emphasized that the follow-up research of this project should be more focused on certain prominent issues.
Liu Jingwei, on behalf of the team, expressed sincere gratitude to the experts for their constructive and instructive opinions, which contributed a lot to the research. He said that he would work with the team members to conclude valuable advice from this conference and complete the tasks of this study with high-standard quality.
The conference on the proposal of the project came to a successful conclusion, and the research work of the National Social Science Foundation’s major project the Research on Technical Regulations Based on Rule of Law, National Governance and Global Governance (Project No. 21 & ZD192) will be officially launched.
