Risk management and oversight have long been recognized as core corporate governance issues and have gained renewed attention in the wake of the financial crisis. Recent corporate governance reforms in China follow these global trends. This article is the first to examine the intersections between corporate governance and risk regulation in China from a comparative perspective. It surveys corporate governance tools that have been adopted by Chinese regulators and firms to motivate effective risk oversight and risk management across the corporate enterprise, focusing on China's regulation of internal controls and risk management systems. These internal mechanisms are particularly important given the widely recognized limits of external monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in China.

This article observes that recent guidelines on enterprise risk management (ERM) and internal controls reflect international corporate governance standards and that China adopts a broad perspective on risk oversight that extends to both financial and non-financial risks. China's adoption of international models offers a new opportunity to reexamine longstanding debates on the potential for global corporate governance convergence. This article argues that China has adopted a regulatory approach to internal risk oversight and management that is consistent with its historical law reform trajectory, the reality of China's state-dominated equity markets, and the continued influence of the state on firm management. Its conclusions support the literature on the path dependency of corporate governance systems and prior comparative studies of corporate governance in China that find convergence of form but divergence of function.

This article argues that European Union (EU) risk regulation of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) was both a trigger and formative factor in the development of similar Chinese regulation. The attractiveness and global interdependence of the EU market in EEE impelled a response from Chinese policy-makers. Fostering the domestic industry's global competitiveness was one of the driving factors behind Chinese substance restriction regulation. Additionally, symbolic emulation and growing domestic environmental problems related to waste EEE infl uenced the Chinese policy agenda. Chinese substance restriction rules are not, however, a mere copy of EU regulation. The limited domestic capacity of the Chinese economy, administration, and legal structure to adopt policies similar to those of the EU explains, to a large extent, the emergence and partial persistence of differences between EU and Chinese risk regulation. In the course of the implementation and evaluation of Chinese substance restriction regulation, lessons learned from the EU’s experience increasingly contributed to shaping the policy, leading to growing convergence.

This paper provides a holistic review of market surveillance in China from a legal perspective, supplemented by the authors’ practical knowledge. The fundamental legal bases of market surveillance, namely the Law on Product Quality, the Law on Import and Export Commodity Inspection and the Law on Standardization, along with their associated implementation regulations, are thoroughly examined. Thereby the special features of market surveillance in the Chinese context are presented. This, in particular, includes the differentiation between market surveillance on the production and circulation stages (pre-marketand post-market) and an introduction of the two major competent authorities, the GeneralAdministration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the State Administrationfor Industry and Commerce, and their respective statutory functions specified by a range of laws and administrative regulations as well as the demarcation of their competencies. The authors also take efforts to explore market surveillance on two spe cial markets, foodand pharmaceuticals, which also includes the legal basis, legal instruments and competent authorities, representing different supervision approaches compared with ordinary products.In the end, market surveillance on and by conformity assessment bodies are briefl yreviewed to provide another angle for the observation of the Chinese system.

The article examines China's food standardization system, its reform and remaining challenges. Upon examining China's general standardization system, the article argues that the food standardization institutional framework has originated from the general standardization, which has developed a four-level hierarchy mechanism. It further examines the most salient features of China's food standardization system, namely, top-down hierarchy and intensive government involvement, and suggests that these features caused a regulatory failure. Although China recently reformed this fi eld, and the food safety standard hierarchy has been streamlined, challenges remain. The article reviews China's current reform in the food standardization system by providing a description, analysis and comparison of approaches from Europe and China.

Information dissemination across the supply chain to consumers about chemicals’ hazardous properties and presence in consumer products has been recognized as insufficient to improve to enable both producers and end-users to avoid hazardous chemicals and to manage risks to human health and the environment. A comparative analysis of the information requirements in four EU legislations (the CLP, the Cosmetics regulation, REACH, and the Toys Safety Directive) and three US legislations (California's Proposition 65 and Senate Bill 509, and the national TSCA) was conducted with the aim of studying to what extent existing regulatory information approaches require information to be disseminated to consumers. In general, the European legislations address and promote consumers’ access to information on chemicals in products more comprehensively than the American legislations, but the amount and type of information required to be disseminated to consumers varies widely. These differences include which chemicals are prioritised, if the chemical is used in a mixture or an article, what information dissemination strategies are used, and who is responsible for consumers accessing the information. It is recommended that chemical information policies should, at minimum, require chemical suppliers to inform consumers of hazardous chemicals present in their products and, if possible, recommend risk management measures to ensure a safe use of consumer products.

The adoption by WTO Members of measures relating to the protection of health and life of animals, plants and humans is regulated by the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS)Agreement. A fundamental question in the application of this agreement concerns the distinction to be drawn between legitimate regulation and unlawful restriction of trade. This distinction can be difficult to discern, particularly since different communities have different levels of tolerance for risk, which leads to varying national regulatory decisions. This paper critically examines the approach taken to this question in rulings of the WTO dispute settlement panels and Appellate Body, highlighting and analysing three emergent issues:the role attributed to science, the two stage review process adopted and the application of the principle of mutual recognition. The importance of deliberative decision-making inthis context is emphasised, as is the need for recognition and acceptance of the regulatory diversity that this will bring.

The requirements of free trade and economic globalisation and the respective international legal framework, namely in the context of the WTO, have led to a decrease of the regulatory power of the nation states which cannot be replaced by comparable public international law making – neither in content nor with respect to legitimacy considerations.

With the Communication on Smart Regulation issued in October 2010, the European Commissiontried to foster a better management of the whole policy cycle. According to thatCommunication, amending policy proposals must be preceded by an ex-post assessmentof the current situation, allowing “closing the policy cycle”. This paper tries to answer thequestion whether the EU Impact Assessments System is fit to steer and close the policy cycle,and what is the relation between ex-ante IA and ex-post evaluation “on the ground” so far. This is done via a macro and micro analysis, based on scorecard approach and three casestudies, comparing the EU IA system performance with a theoretical benchmark derived from the EU policy document and process. The paper concludes that the EU Impact Assessmentsystem, as it is currently designed and implemented, is not yet fi t to steer and closethe policy cycle. To achieve this goal, all the analytical and empirical layers of the policycycle should be fully dealt with since the ex-ante phase.

This report evaluates the current regulatory regime for health claims in the EU on the basis of a case study of the marketing of Optimel Control, a yoghurt drink which was marketed in several EU member states as a functional food aimed at suppressing appetite and maintaining weight control. Our case study of the marketing of Optimel Control in the Netherlands reveals that the use of non-textual marketing claims was much more important than the use of textual health claims. Because the current EU regulatory regime emphasizes the evaluation of the wording of health claims, but lacks an evaluation of non-textual claims we conclude that there is a regulatory void that producers can use to market their products in ways that suggest more health effects than scientifi cally warranted. As a result the protective effect of the current EU regulatory regime on health claims is less strong than what legislators may have intended. While it might seem most logical to simply expand EFSA's remit by also letting it look at non-textual claims, we argue that a better solution to close this gap is through a stricter monitoring of unfair commercial practices at national level.

Towards the end of 2011, the (then) Responsible Gambling Fund published a report which, inter alia, offers an overview of the research gaps in relation to the impact of advertising on disordered gambling. In this article, the authors of the report summarise their main findings. They conclude that evaluating the impact of gambling advertising is highly complex. Nonetheless, advertising forms an important component of the broader environment in which behaviour and attitudes are shaped. The empirical evidence base is weak and therefore conclusions about whether gambling advertising is associated with increased levels of disordered gambling cannot be drawn. However, there is some evidence that advertising alters perceptions and attitudes towards gambling. Yet, evidence demonstrating translation of this into behavioural change is weak. Particular attention should be given to vulnerable population groups such as adolescents and disordered gamblers. In view of further research, a set of recommendations is provided.

Nanomaterials and products containing such materials are already in widespread use because they exhibit technologically interesting, nano-specific features such as increased tensile strength, improved electrical conductivity, special optical characteristics or special medico-chemical properties. Nonetheless, the same features that make these substances so interesting technologically potentially harbor risks for those persons who handle them. This is because small particle size, coupled with increased reactivity due to special surface features, determines their biological activity and therefore toxicity. The increasing applications are exposing ever more employees – especially those working in research laboratories or in industrial production and processing – to nanosubstances. This makes occupational safety a major issue from a regulatory standpoint. Based on the available literature on occupational safety, the following nanomaterial-relevant topics have been identifi ed: health risks, adaptation of detection and measurement methods, actual exposure scenarios at the workplace, defi nition and compilation of existing worksites for nanomaterials, recommendations for worker safety by the authorities and by industry, as well as preventive occupational medical care.

At the meeting of the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (hereinafter, TBT Committee) held on 13–14 June 2012, Argentina voiced its concerns over a measure adopted by Spain restricting imports of biodiesel products into its territory. These concerns were reiterated, jointly with Indonesia, at the meeting of the WTO Council for Trade in Goods of 22 June 2012. On 17 August 2012, Argentina fi led a request for WTO consultations with the European Union (hereinafter, the EU) and Spain, targeting Spain’s restrictions.

The dispute over ractopamine in the Codex Alimenta-rius Commission (CAC) exemplifi es changes in Codex proceedings. In its early days, the CAC resembled to an honourable Club of senior food safety offi cials aim-ing at setting food standards in a consensual manner. However, with the WTO connexion established in 1995, CAC proceedings are overshadowed by looming trade disputes and increasingly decided by majority voting. The tendency towards majority voting in the CAC may ultimately undermine the universality of food safety standards and the legitimacy of the CAC as an inter-national standard setting body.

The test of EU antidumping expiry review is the likely continuation or recurrence of the dumping. In this case, the General Court (Second Chamber) of the Court of Justice of the European Union found that the European Council made manifest assessment errors of facts in using the continuation test to extend antidumping duties on the non-dumping applicant. However, due to the high discretion of the Council and the Court in making antidumping decisions, it is not a rigid rule that the non-dumping producers shall be exempt from the duties in the expiry review.

Judgment of the Court (fifth Chamber) of 1 March 2012 (reference for preliminary ruling), Case C—166/11: Ángel Lorenzo González Alonso v Nationale Nederlanden Vida Cía. de Seguros y Reaseguros, S.A.E. (Spain)**

A contract concluded away from business premises, under which life assurance is offered in return for payment of a monthly premium to be invested, in varying proportions, in fixed-rate investments, variable-rate investments and financial investment products of the company offering the contract, falls outside the scope of Council Directive 85/577/ EEC of 20 December 1985, to protect the consumer in respect to contracts negotiated away from business premises, in accordance with Article 3(2)(d) thereof (official headnote).