At 18:30 on May 7th, 2016, Zeng Lingliang, Senior Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at Wuhan University, gave a report on "Global Governance Structure Reform and China's Deep Participation" at Jilin University.
Professor Zeng Lingliang believes that the new era has changed the model of nations’ monopolizing international law in the past, that is, it has taken on expansions in the field of international law. In the way of implementing international law, it has broken through the national self-help mode of compliance with international law. Documents that are bound by the modern international community are not necessarily called treaties in their names. Sometimes, "declarations" may also become binding hard laws. Judging whether an international document can become a hard law depends on whether it has clear rights and obligations, as well as the background and process of its formation.
In today's world, the participation of non-state actors has gradually increased, the diversity of actors and the changes of roles, the types of international law subjects and global governance actors are more complex and diverse. In the governance structure, new regulatory tools emerged, such as compliance mechanisms under the responsibility of national protection, emphasizing three pillars: (1) national protection obligations; (2) national assistance obligations; and (3) international community acts collectively under the circumstance of unwillingness and inability in the country to provide effective protection, At the same time, human rights treaties have also developed diversified compliance mechanisms, such as special committees, reports, investigations and other mechanisms; and such as environmental treaty compliance mechanisms, including the start of the State itself, the start of other countries, the start of the Secretariat, etc. In the international community, measures to promote compliance and breach of contract penalty have been gradually strengthened, as is the case with the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Professor Zeng Lingliang also stressed that there are some shortcomings in the reform of global governance, such as the defects of the United Nations collective security mechanism, the flaws in decision-making methods, the constitutionality of the resolutions of the Security Council, the lack of guarantees for global financial stability, and the shortcomings of economic governance: including global financial crisis, stagnant trade mechanism, fragmentation of investment rules, environmental governance, overlapping institutions, lack of coordination, numerous treaties and mechanisms, but weak implementation, serious differences in substantive obligations, and impediments to the implementation of multilateral framework conventions and global governance in other areas blocked.
These problems raise the need for change, the need to reasonably reflect changes in the structure of the international community, to promote the need for more fair and reasonable international rules and mechanisms, and to open up new mechanisms to meet the needs of new global challenges. In the process of reform, there are problems with the direction. For example, whether the existing rules apply to the field of the network, or whether some new systems should be built.
In response to the need for change, Professor Zeng Lingliang proposed the opportunity and suggestion for China to participate deeply in the reform of the global governance system. At present, there are many new situations in China: including the consolidation of the status of a new political power, the determination of the status of an economic power, the declaration of the rule of law, the full participation of global governance mechanisms and affairs, the promotion of voice and voting rights, and the trust and expectation received from developing countries etc. And he put forward a series of practical suggestions on deep participation.
Professor Zeng Lingliang's report has a broad vision and a complete structure. It reflects a rigorous academic attitude and systematic academic thinking. It has been warmly welcomed by all participants. Many participants have raised a series of questions ti which Professor Zeng Lingliang gave an in-depth and thorough answer and explanation.
