Browsing by Author "Xiang, Anqi"

This thesis focuses on the choice of law rules in a transnational employment contract. The research object is the new law published in China in 2010, which will be provided an observation on the law content, empirical research on the implementation and practical issues in China, and a comparative study of the rules in the EU to provide potential helpful suggestions on improving the choice of law rules in China. In the disputes arising from the employment relationship which has foreign factors, e.g., foreign employers, foreign workers, posting workers overseas, etc., the applied law to the case is one significant issue in the field of private international law. Such rules in China were not unified in law until the establishment of the Law of the PRC on the Laws Applicable to Foreign-related Civil Relations (LAL). However, the empirical research shows that although the transnational employment contract disputes in China increase in the last decade, the implementation of LAL still meets obstacles from the courts’ lack of attention to the foreign-related factors, poor knowledge of using LAL appropriately, etc. Besides, the flaws of law content, e.g., obscure terms, no specific distinguishment from the collective agreements, controversial understanding of mandatory provisions, lack of party autonomy and practical use of closest connection principle, etc., lead to academic concerns. With a comparison of such rules in the EU, some suggestions are provided, for example, allowing the party’s choice, which could be limited by introducing objectively applicable law; clarifying the obscure terms, e.g., working place, business place, etc.; putting the closest connection principle in a practically useful position; etc. However, due to the current obstacles, some suggestions may not be accepted currently. Besides, with many important external factors, e.g., the impact by the new PRC Civil Code, the One Belt One Road Initiative, the Covid-19, etc., the improvement of the choice of law rules in China is necessary and would meet more challenges in the future.