Conventional discourses on the perils of weak property rights vis--vis government takings have failed to account for and respond to the rent-seeking and inefficiency problems of government actions. Singapore, with its broad takings powers, coupled with express undercompensation, has not suffered from the predicted widespread rent-seeking and inefficiency. This case study of Singapore from a givings perspective demonstrates the importance of imposing a fair charge on the various kinds of givings in curbing rent-seeking and inefficiency. There are also additional benefits of having a healthy fiscal budget and more equitable taxation arising from Singapores givings regime. The key normative implication is that an equal, if not greater, emphasis has to be placed on the givings aspect of the equation, whether in dealing with the problems of rent-seeking and inefficiency or promoting better governance and fiscal policies.

China recently reformed its death penalty laws, and as a result the government has executed fewer prisoners. The author explores possible reasons and policy concerns behind China's legal reform. These influences include international forces and domestic factors, such as the media, changed circumstances, compassion, and politics. Although hardly transparent, the underlying motivations for the revisions suggest that eventually China may abolish capital punishment, perhaps even before the United States does so.

Translator's Note: Is Japan a "paradise for the press?" Or is robust discourse on matters of public interest in Japan stifled because of defamation laws that heavily favor the plaintiff? Kamakami v. Sakurai, as one of the final events in Japan's HIV-tainted blood scandal, is a provocative and illustrative chapter in the freedom of press and defamation law in Japan.

Three decades ago, China moved from a communal system of farming to a system that granted more extensive land-use rights to individual households, starting rural China on a path to greater prosperity. Today, however, the law and policy promulgated by the Chinese government prevents farmers from fully realizing this prosperity. The Land Administration Law gives farmers thirty-year contractual rights to the land they farm and the Law on Rural Land Contracting strengthens this right by more specifically enumerating requirements for land contracting and the transfer of contractual rights. Nevertheless, the rural-urban gap is the worst it has been in decades and rural Chinese are left behind to watch their urban counterparts enjoy China's recent economic success. Realizing the need for rural reform, the government has issued two policy directives that outline measures to increase land tenure security with the goals of doubling farmers' incomes by 2020 and maintaining the country's grain supply. While these documents are well intentioned, they are insufficient to fully address rural issues surrounding land tenure rights and do not represent a breakthrough in rural land reform. In order for the policy directives to be more effective, the Chinese government should define who exercises collective ownership rights over farmland, implement a rural registration system, and educate farmers concerning that system. By taking these steps, China will better ensure that conditions in its rural areas will begin to match the prosperity that was envisioned for them thirty years ago.

One of the most recent steps in China's slow march towards liberalization of foreign investment is the introduction of the 2006 Provisions on Acquisition of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors ("2006 M&A Provisions"). Article 12 of this law provides new procedures for review and approval of foreign investment in China. China's national security review of foreign direct investment has the same motivations as the United States' Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review, but it is much murkier and less efficient. CFIUS is governed by numerous statutory and regulatory guidelines. China should integrate some of the CFIUS statutes and regulations, which allow the United States to address new threats to national security without unreasonably burdening foreign investment, into its national security review process. China should also draw on standards contained in other parts of the 2006 M&A Provisions to improve the workability of national security review under Article 12. These changes would help ensure that foreign investors will be willing to continue providing the capital that has helped drive China's economic transformation, while safeguarding China's essential national security interests.

The Philippines is rife with competing struggles for rights of self-determination and international terrorist networks. For years, the Philippine government prosecuted suspected terrorists without an anti-terror law. The absence of an express criminal violation for acts of terrorism led to a blurred distinction between punishing terrorists and punishing secessionists. Responding to public outcry that the Philippine government was violating human rights by punishing secessionists unjustly, the United Nations conducted an investigation. This investigation led to the placement of the Philippine government on the United Nations' human rights watch list. The Philippine legislature, shortly thereafter, passed the Human Security Act of 2007 ("HSA"). This law codified the acts punishable as crimes of terrorism. Since the HSA's passage, five prominent advocacy groups petitioned the Philippine Supreme Court to strike down the anti-terror law as unconstitutional for being overly vague and unjustly intruding on individual rights. This comment analyzes the lawfulness of the HSA.

Marine transport is an efficient and cost-effective way to transport goods around the world; at least ninety percent of all global trade is served by the shipping industry and shipping trade is expected to triple in the next two decades. However, because of the poor quality of the fuel used by the shipping industry, ocean-going ships disproportionately impact the environment and human health. The shipping industry is presently estimated to generate almost thirty percent of the world's smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions and nearly ten percent of sulfur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain and deadly fine particles. The Pearl River Delta on the Southern coast of China is home to some of the busiest sea ports in the world, including the ports of Hong Kong and East and West Shenzhen, and is therefore particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of ship emissions. The air pollution caused by ship emissions poses a serious and growing threat to the Pearl River Delta and its inhabitants, but the Chinese government has implemented very few initiatives to reduce its effects. The Chinese government must take a two-pronged approach to address the threat of ship emissions. First and most importantly, Chinese lawmakers should draft and implement national legislation that imposes emissions restrictions on ships while in and around the ports of the Pearl River Delta. Second, China should appeal to the International Maritime Organization to have the Pearl River Delta declared a Micro-Emissions Control Area, thereby significantly restricting the sulfur content of fuel permitted within the region.