Over the past half century, western democracies have lead efforts to entrench the economic and political values of liberal democracy into the foundations of European and international public order. As this book details, the relationship between the media and the state has been at the heart of those efforts. In that relationship, often framed in constitutional principles, the liberal democratic state has celebrated the liberty to publish information and entertainment content, while also forcefully setting the limits for harmful or offensive expression. It is thus a relationship rooted in the state's need for security, authority, and legitimacy as much as liberalism's powerful arguments for economic and political freedom. In Europe, this long running endeavour has yielded a market based, liberal democratic regional order that has profound consequences for media law and policy in the member states. This book examines the economic and human rights aspects of European media law, which is not only comparatively coherent but also increasingly restrictive, rejecting alternatives that are well within the traditions of liberalism. Parallel efforts in the international sphere have been markedly less successful. In international media law, the division between trade and human rights remains largely unabridged and, in the latter field, liberal democratic concepts of free speech are influential but rarely decisive. In the international sphere states are moreover quick to assert their rights to autonomy. Nonetheless, the current communications revolution has overturned fundamental assumptions about the media and the state around the world, eroding the boundaries between domestic and foreign media as well as mass and personal communication. European and International Media Law sets legal and policy developments in the context of this fast changing, globalized media and communications sector.

This volume concerns several aspects of China's changing market based economy. These include commercial contract enforcement, corporate structures, competition law and other issues related to China's membership in the WTO. In the past two decades, the rapid integration of China's economy into the global marketplace has created obligations and expectations of non-discrimination and regulatory transparency in domestic markets. The Chinese government has responded by demanding better governance within major companies, market sectors and public administration generally. However, as the articles in this volume show, it has struggled to find a corporate structure capable of absorbing external equity investment and participation but still amenable to direct and indirect state guidance. It has also moved cautiously in creating legal controls over unfair competition. Moreover, the protection of state owned enterprises, which serve as vehicles for domestic economic, social and political policy, has been a recurring issue in China's WTO trade disputes.

China's Confucian-based imperial legal system developed and flourished for more than 3000 years. Its disintegration, following the collapse of the last dynasty in 1911, ushered in a new century of legal experimentation, development and intermittent disorder. No single book could possibly offer a completely comprehensive discussion of every element of the rich and diverse system of Chinese law. However, the articles included in this volume illustrate the very best of English language academic scholarship in this area. They represent a collective introduction to the law and legal theory of China and provide a perceptive and well informed guide to a huge subject area of enormous depth and complexity.

This volume concerns the rights and obligations of the individual in three critically important contexts: employment relations, family relations and the ownership of immovable property. The development of these legal institutions has helped to transform economic and social relations in contemporary China. In this volume, the articles illustrate firstly a shift away from close state control towards greater freedom for enterprises to use human and natural resources to achieve economic growth and for citizens to pursue their personal lives. More recently, the government has responded to public demands for greater security in employment, home ownership and agricultural land rights with new primary legislation, including the Employment Contract Law and Property Rights Law. Yet, as this volume also shows, the Communist Party has been reluctant to allow empowerment of the individual to threaten other public policy goals, such as the state's ultimate control over the conditions of employment or land use.

This volume addresses several core questions regarding the nature of law in China and its future development. In particular, these articles shed light on whether the rule of law ideal is commensurable with government based on the Chinese Communist Party. Beginning virtually from scratch, China has established a comprehensive legal system that boasts a constitution, primary and secondary legislation and plentiful regulations covering most areas of public and private life. Yet, as these articles discuss, its courts are enmeshed in Party and state hierarchies and are not empowered to directly apply constitutional principles or rights, ensuring that the law is subordinate to national public policy goals. Legal and extra-legal methods for punishing wrongdoing and resolving disputes also raise questions of due process of law. Ultimately, the question is therefore whether China's legal system, if eschewing formalised human rights, is developing a capacity to protect fundamental human dignity.