Research On The Path To Integration Of The Rule Of Law In Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

As early as the 1980 s,some scholars began to study on the interregional conflict of laws after the return of Hong Kong and Macao to China.It is not only a political issue but a concern on the rule of law for China,which is a unitary state,to properly deal with the interregional conflict of laws on the premise of one country.Along with the implementation of The Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta(2009),the national policies involving state-level new area,free trade zone,the Belt and Road,the regional cooperation of Pan-Pearl River Delta,Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(GBA),coordinated development of the regions have highlighted the area of Guangdong,Hong Kong and Macao,among which the policy on GBA is the most direct one to promote the development of the region.In addition to the formulation and implementation of the regional policies,there are other situations that contribute to the settlement of interregional conflict of laws in GBA and provide a favorable environment for GBA to realize regional integration of the rule of law step by step,including China's entry to WTO,signing of CEPA and its annexes among Chinese Mainland,Hong Kong and Macao,regular convening of joint conference among Guangdong,Hong Kong and Macao and the implementation of the relevant cooperative agreements,and the comprehensive law-based governance proposed at the fourth plenary session of the 18 th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,which decided on upholding the policy of the Comprehensive Law-based Governance as a basic strategy of adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a new era.Different from the area of Guangdong,Hong Kong,and Macao,GBA is an integral whole as a region,which is under the national strategy that incorporates Hong Kong and Macao into the overall plan on national development.In this context,we should have a study on effectively resolve the interregional conflict of laws by finding a path to regional integration of the rule of law for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area based on the theoretical establishment of regional integration of the rule of law through the in-depth research on the conditions of law-based governance in different legal fields and combined with the concept of regional integration.The logical starting point of GBA is a region,a special form of the region.The theoretical foundation of GBA is the theory of regional integration.Along with the development of regionalism and neo-regionalism,the theoretical model of regional integration represented by Balassa is the most worthy of being taken for reference in the construction of GBA.The core of the regional integration is the integration of the regional economy,during which the regional rule of law rather than the regional legal system draws our attention,since the simple regional legal systems are inadequate to support and solve the problems of regional integration in legislation,administration,and jurisdiction.The regional integration of the rule of law in GBA is a process that Guangdong,Hong Kong,and Macao have to undergo from the initial cooperation to the final fusion,during which momentous changes happen in various fields and evolution to the new overall features emerges.Here,GBA means far more than a concept of integration of the rule of law,but a dynamic course or state of evolving to the target of integration.Such a course or a state is composed of multiple phases each with different patterns of manifestation that can be generalized as a modeled ideal type.According to Balassa's discussion on the stages and manifestations of regional integration,the stages of regional legal integration can be divided into four stages: interregional legal cooperation,establishment of a legal system of regional economic integration,uniformity of regional legal standards and interregional legal fusion.The integration of the rule of law in GBA is the materialization of the theory of regional integration of the rule of law.The conceptual self-consistency of the region and the rule of law lies in the power decentralization of the central and local government,which actually means the transference of governance powers rather than the division of sovereignty.The powers transferred are limited to that on the public goods with a certain externality.The cooperation,distribution,and adjustment of the administration,legislation,and jurisdiction possessed by Hong Kong and Macao on such public goods are the important items of integration of the rule of law,and will not affect the high degree of autonomy and independence of judicature of Hong Kong and Macao.It is a realistic choice to achieve integration of the rule of law step by step through the fusion of law-based governance and balance of all sorts of forces by maintaining existing civilization and upholding the policy of "One Country,Two Systems" based on the principle of the culvert.The integration of the rule of law in GBA needs path.In the choice of path,soft laws should be given priority to,and hard laws should be supplemented.According to certain selection methods,excludes the loose coordination of regional legal systems,regional common regulations,legally effective administrative agreement and regional adjustment of administrative division among all the paths to the loose legal coordination in addition to paths to soft laws,hard laws and adjustment of administrative division.Regional policies,regional agreements,regional model laws,regional case laws,and regional legislations can serve as the main paths for the rule of law integration in GBA.The abundant practices of regional rule of law in China have proved that it is not an issue on the feasibility of the regional policies and regional agreements as the path to the integration of the rule of law in GBA.As the path to integration of the rule of law,the cluster of regional policies and the features of regional rule of law are necessary to the regional policy in form and content.The role interaction and mutual promotion between regional policies and regional legal systems are also important considerations for the rule of law on policies in GBA.Regional agreements can be divided into three types: regional administrative agreements,regional juridical agreements,and regional civil agreements.The legal force and hierarchy,performance and dispute resolution of them are different.The regional model laws and regional case laws should be an important path to the integration of the rule of law in GBA.With the central government putting forward the strategy of comprehensively governing the country by law and the theory of comprehensive governance,with the advance of regional integration,the practice of formulating and implementing the model law in GBA,as well as the matching of the legal semantic standard structure and the model law in GBA provide the possibility for the regional model law to play its role.In the chain of substantive law—procedural law—conflict law,formulating regional substantive law model law is conducive to resolving part of inter-regional legal disputes and reducing inter-regional legal conflicts according to the principle of autonomy of the will of both parties.The models of the case law is divided into models of British-American case law,case-type judicial interpretation,ruling case,and special court case.Outside of these four patterns,we can explore and establish regional case law in GBA.The regional case law is to make the legal rules,principles or interpretations embodied in regional case law or case become uniform standards and requirements to guide the courts in the region to judge case through the confirmation of certain forms of regional case law or case.Regional case law can be divided into meta-case law and common law,which should be the common precedent of GBA and should be followed by them.The regional legislation of GBA is based on the constitution and delegated legislation.The five major models available for regional legislation in GBA include uniform national legislation,legislation based on regional cooperation,legislation based on regional approbation,special cooperation zone legislation within the region and unilateral regional legislation.