Towards a BRICS Law
By ROSTAM J. NEUWIRTH
Is it time that BRICS countries move from cooperation to codification?
The BRlCS Forum on the lnternational Rule of Law is held in Beijing, China, on September 7, 2019.
ON November 13-14, 2019, the 11th BRICS annual summit of the heads of state and heads of government of the five member states Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will be held in Brasilia, Brazil. This event marks the anniversary of 10 successful BRICS summits and presents an opportunity to take stock of past achievements and assess present challenges.More importantly though, it will provide a chance to open a new chapter in future cooperation between the BRICS countries, which should take into account the rule of law and various related legal instruments.
During the past decade, both the evolution of BRICS cooperation and recent global developments confirm the urgent need of efforts to reinforce and better coordinate the existing formats of BRICS cooperation, which so far has been organized primarily as a “cooperation and dialogue platform” without major institutional support.Essentially, this means that the main driver of their ongoing cooperation are the annual BRICS summits and meetings by BRICS ministers which include such areas as foreign affairs, trade, agriculture, science and technology, and innovation.
It should be pointed out that already a vast amount of BRICS texts and materials have been adopted, mostly in the form of declarations, memoranda of understanding or joint statements. Strictly legal aspects of BRICS cooperation have so far been rare, with the exception of the 2014 Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB) and related agreements, which created the so-called BRICS Bank as a permanent institution in Shanghai,China. Additionally, only two more binding agreements have been signed. One of these is the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a support mechanism through liquidity and precautionary instruments in response to the actual or potential short-term balance of payments, and another being the so-called BRICS Agreement on Culture. Even the BRICS Legal Forum has only directly produced five legally nonbinding declarations.
This leaves BRICS cooperation with a rather loose institutional and organizational framework of cooperation, as compared to other international cooperation initiatives. Yet, this can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the challenges that the respective context poses. It can mean greater flexibility, for instance, to respond more rapidly to a particular problem, while the same framework can lead to its neglect or, in a worst case scenario, even spell the end of BRICS altogether.
Finally, the law can help to bring simplicity to complexity, when it is used to consolidate existing rules or mere political statements repeatedly laid down in declarations and other non-binding documents through codification. It is no coincidence that the legal term “codification” resembles the term “coding”used in computer science, as both use language to deal with “big data” and consolidate large volumes of information in a coherent set of documents or files.
It is in the difficult task of dealing with rapid change and complexity that law and the rule of law can provide important solutions to the serious problems encountered. When formulated in a consistent manner, the rule of law can perform important functions in this regard. These functions include, firstly, a simplification of existing agreements, laws or regulations, which after some time tend to become obsolete and fragmented. Law can also provide continuity in change, notably when providing institutional support and sound procedural rules to be followed in case of sudden changes in context. With the help of the rule of law, the levels of legal certainty and predictability are also improved, which allows everyone to better predict the consequences of decisions made and actions that follow.
One of law's central functions is to reconcile opposites, to solve the paradox that the only constant appears to be change, which is usually a cause of uncertainty and unpredictability.
Based on these considerations and useful functions provided by law, in the short term, BRICS need to see that the existing BRICS texts and materials are made available in an authentic, clear, and consistent manner, perhaps through an official BRICS website or even in the form of a virtual BRICS secretariat. This requires some sound research on the different sources of law, as new technologies also raise the question of admitting new sources (e.g. artificial intelligence) and subjects of law (e.g. animals and trees)to the realm of public international law. Moreover,the eventual categorization of BRICS law sources must take place in close alignment with the principal goals formulated by the BRICS countries.
Basically such a coherent legal framework, it is argued, would be fit to bring greater simplicity to a growing complexity of the different policy areas. It would equally provide continuity in times of rapid change and allow the BRICS countries to harmonize regulatory efforts globally while maintaining their flexibility and regulatory diversity domestically.
Equally important, especially for BRICS, is that the law can provide the mortar that holds the bricks of different layers of life, particularly politics and economics, together, especially in turbulent times characterized by rapid and drastic change. This is also of great relevance to the governance of global affairs under the aegis of various multilateral organizations,such as the United Nations (UN), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Unfortunately, these two organizations, representing two pillars of global governance,namely the political and economic, were separated at birth following the failure of the 1947 Havana Charter to establish an International Trade Organization, and have not been reconciled since then.
为了避免市场的容量、价格和产品成本波动对公司利润的影响，笔者分别把两种模式下的单价、单位变动成本、销量和固定成本四个相关因素对利润的影响程度，称之为“敏感系数”，依次分析风险程度[2]，见表5[1]。
The parallel desire for flexibility and security,sometimes expressed by way of the oxymoron “flexicurity,” however, is difficult to fulfill. This is where the function of law may enter the picture. One of law's central functions is to reconcile opposites, to solve the paradox that the only constant appears to be change, which is usually a cause of uncertainty and unpredictability.
在路虎揽胜极光于2010年正式亮相之后，人们曾感叹，原来豪华紧凑SUV还可以这样时尚，原来路虎揽胜还可以这样引领潮流。而在极光进入中国市场之后，我们也曾惊讶，原来一辆块头不大的豪华SUV还可以如此受年轻和女性消费群体欢迎，甚至伴随着现在看来有些疯狂的加价现象。
In order to assist the functioning of the proposed virtual BRICS secretariat and other related BRICS institutions, including the New Development Bank(NDB), the BRICS countries should also envisage the adoption of a short legal text, in the form of a charter,or perhaps called the “BRICS Analects,” extracting and collecting the fundamental objectives and principles formulated in the numerous BRICS declarations and action plans.
Since that time, the global community and its widely fragmented international legal system is struggling to reconcile various trade or economic issues with so-called “non-trade issues.” In the current complex and rapidly changing times, the lack of a sound and consistent legal framework may lead to serious conflicts between different policy goals. This is of utmost importance, especially when it comes to realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which consist of a subset of 17 areas, all need to be addressed in the spirit of a winwin scenario and not a zero-sum game. This is to say that the coherence which safeguards the successful realization of one policy goal, does not neutralize or even jeopardize the successful realization of another,or all the remaining policy goals.
After all, the BRICS cooperation has proven already that differences in geography and history,trade and economics, culture and language, or law and politics, are not an obstacle to joining efforts in tackling the great problems of the world. On the contrary, these differences mark an incentive to make a difference in the global governance, because novel strategies, different from those that failed in the past, are needed if we want to succeed in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals and secure the survival of the planet and its inhabitants for future generations.
不仅如此，科莱恩十分重视可持续发展。公司将所有的产品按照可持续发展的绩效性、社会性、环境性进行一个筛选。经过筛查，公司将不符合可持续发展理念的产品进行有计划的创新，或者寻求替代解决方案，使其获得可持续性，而把无法获得可持续性的产品进行淘汰。
本段施工拟采用管棚灌浆法施工，①首先在洞顶上方设计位置用YG-80型钻机跟管钻进，钻孔孔径不小于146mm；②钻孔完成后下设直径不小于75mm壁厚≥5mm无缝钢管（管棚）；③拔出套管，孔口处采用水泥砂浆封闭管棚与孔壁间空隙；④射浆管下入孔底后采用孔口封闭纯压式灌浆法。
Lastly, it is important to note that law plays an important role in organizing the future, as it lays the foundations for the future global political and economic order. Similar to science fiction, law can- through the rule of law and related instruments- function like a self-fulfilling prophecy and help to predict the future by regulating and thereby creating it.
该展高扬社会主义核心价值观旗帜，鼓励青年美术家创作出更多具有中国特色、中国风格、中国气派的美术精品，进一步繁荣浙江美术创作；打造浙江省青年美术家展示才华的舞台，进一步推进青年美术人才培养。展出作品充分表现了浙江人民在改革开放大潮中的精神面貌。同时，在艺术手法上，青年美术家思维敏锐，视角独特，勇于探索，不断进取，展现出勃勃生机和活力。
Sergio Guerra, dean of FGV Direito Rio,gives a speech on Brzailian rule of law and the regulatory governance framework in Beijing on September 7, 2019.
ROSTAM J. NEUWIRTH is professor of law and head of the Department of Global Legal Studies at University of Macau(China).
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