catalog

Feature

Mutual learning of human rights thoughts between China and Europe in the process of modernization/ Chang Jian Gao Jiexin (1)

"Grotius's Ideological Heritage" Series (III)

The Ideological Influence of Grotius during the "Puritan Revolution" in England ——A Historical Review of the Rule of Law and Individual Freedom (I)/ Gong Jianren (29)

Article

A gaffe and misconduct of human rights treaty bodies ——Comments on the deliberation of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on China's third performance report/ Huang Jinrong (63)

On the Elements of "Persuasion" of Human Rights Discourse/ Hong Lewei (92)

Monograph | Labor Rights as Human Rights

On the Justification of the Right to Work Freedom in China's Constitution ——Re understanding of labor norms/ Liu Zihao (110)

abstract

1. Mutual learning of human rights thoughts between China and Europe in the process of modernization

Author: Chang Jian, director of the Human Rights Research Center (National Human Rights Education and Training Base) of Nankai University, and professor of Zhou Enlai's School of Government Management. Gao Jiexin is a 2022 doctoral candidate of Zhou Enlai School of Government Management, Nankai University.

Summary: Both Chinese and European traditional cultures contain rich potential human rights resources. In the process of modernization, the outstanding traditional Chinese culture "learning from the east to the west" has played a certain role in enlightening Europe and helped to create the European theory of human rights. In turn, the European human rights theory "Western learning has spread eastward", which also inspired the human rights resources in China's excellent traditional culture to achieve self breakthroughs and germinated China's human rights concept. In the process of formulating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the representatives of China and Europe exchanged ideas and jointly explored, making contributions to the global consensus on human rights. Since the reform and opening up, China EU human rights exchanges have become more extensive and balanced. Strengthening human rights exchanges between China and the EU on the basis of equality and openness will not only help expand the vision of human rights and reach consensus on human rights between China and the EU, but also set a model for global human rights exchanges and promote the common and harmonious development of the world's human rights cause.

2. The ideological influence of Grotius in the British "Puritan Revolution" period ——A Historical Review of the Rule of Law and Individual Freedom (I)

Author: Gong Jianren, professor of Peking University (retired).

Summary: In the 17th century, two unprecedented "revolutions" - "Puritan Revolution" and "Glorious Revolution" took place in the British Stuart Dynasty, and finally the constitutional monarchy was established, making Britain the first country in the world to establish the rule of law. The two "revolutions" in Britain were, to a large extent, the result of the intensification of political and religious conflicts intertwined with the Stuart Dynasty. In recent years, many research results in the western historiography circle show that the Dutch scholar Hugo Grotius had important ideological influence during the two "revolutions" in Britain. Therefore, studying the influence of Grotius' theory on Britain has the historical and practical significance of investigating the rule of law and individual freedom. Although both the "royalists" and the "parliamentary party members" used Grotius' theory to justify their positions during the "Puritan Revolution", this paper focuses on Grotius' ideological influence on Henry Parker, the representative theorist of the "parliamentary party members", and James Harrington and John Milton, the representative theorists of the British republicanism. Although the "Puritan Revolution" failed on the surface, it produced permanent results in restricting the king's privileges, promoting the leading role of Parliament and improving the Church of England, and laid the foundation for the later "Glorious Revolution".

3. A gaffe and misconduct of the human rights treaty body ——Comments on the deliberation of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on China's third performance report

Author: Huang Jinrong is a researcher of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Summary: From February 15 to 16, 2023, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights formally reviewed China's third implementation report. The Committee's concluding comments on China have significantly increased new concerns, including issues related to Xinjiang and Tibet, climate change, the epidemic situation of new coronavirus infection and the "Belt and Road" issue. The concluding comments made many accusations against the "Belt and Road", Xinjiang related and Tibet related issues. The committee also ignored China's performance achievements, changed its usual practice, and made a very unbalanced evaluation of the "positive aspects" and "negative aspects" of China's performance, which clearly reflected its prejudice against China. Against the background of increasing international geopolitical tensions, we should correctly deal with the shortcomings of the international human rights mechanism. We should not only affirm its positive role in improving China's human rights protection system, but also firmly clarify and fight back against its accusations against the facts.

4. A preliminary study of the "persuasiveness" element of human rights discourse

Author: Hong Lewei is an assistant researcher of the School of Marxism, Tsinghua University.

Summary: Under the background of strengthening the construction of China's international communication capacity, the concept of "persuasiveness" is of great discourse practical significance, which is also the strategic direction of the construction of human rights discourse. In the field of international human rights discourse that continues to fight against conflict, "persuasion" refers to the feedback of the effect of getting the audience's acceptance and approval, and also means reaching a low level standard of "undeniable" in the context of irrational differences, especially for those hostile countries that firmly hold opposing positions. In the construction of human rights discourse, there is a progressive relationship between the contents of "human rights protection practice", "human rights concept" and "human rights road model". The "human rights concept" part is the key to external persuasion, which will be achieved through technical adjustment of the expression form of ideas. Persuasion in the context of confrontation conflict should meet the dual requirements of "consensus" and "standardization". As far as consensus is concerned, persuasion requires consensus that exists in the human rights category and can touch controversial issues and divergent ideas. The so-called "cross-cultural" consensus may not achieve the desired persuasion effect. In terms of norms, persuasion requires more authoritative international human rights norms, which are solid consensus in themselves. Therefore, the construction of China's human rights discourse at present should pay full attention to the expression strategies of specific contents on the basis of the macro system configuration, especially focus on the construction of "persuasiveness" in some key concepts and concepts, so as to effectively enhance the international influence and discourse power of China's human rights discourse.

5. On the confirmation of the right to freedom of work in China's Constitution ——Re understanding of labor norms

Author: Liu Zihao, a 2020 doctoral candidate of Renmin University of China Law School, and research assistant of the State Responsibility Research Base of the Supreme People's Court.

Summary: The right to work freedom is the product of the changes of the current constitutional labor norms in the market economy era. On the one hand, this right is rooted in the ethics of political recognition and the concept of self-determination contained in labor norms, on the other hand, it is consistent with the economic liberalism turn after the market economy was incorporated into the Constitution, which makes up for the shortcomings of the interpretation scheme of social rights of labor norms and the interpretation scheme of occupational freedom. Due to the lack of direct text basis, the right to freedom of work should be derived from the purpose interpretation and system interpretation of labor norms and related norms as a basic right not enumerated. The core idea of the right to work freedom is to "ensure the right to self-determination and national ownership with the ability to work freedom", and oppose the dwarfing of individuals into human capital under the narrative of economic aggregate. Various institutional arrangements of the Constitution and the Labor Law should aim at expanding citizens' ability to work freedom, rather than simple material security or economic incentives.