徐迟晨 转载自 Harris&Moure LLP

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中国政府在法律之外，有地方性法规，行政法规，部门规章，行业规范，条例，办法，实施意见，批复，政策等规范性法律文件多如牛毛，发生冲突矛盾的不在少数。为何会这样？文章给出了答案

One of the misconceptions I am always fighting about China is that it has no laws. Even people who should know better are oftentimes guilty of just assuming there is nothing on the books to cover a particular business law matter. Their assumptions oftentimes stem from their having seen companies act in so many different ways, leading them to conclude there is no one right way.

There usually is and if you are a foreign company, your best bet is to follow the law.

If anything, one of the problems businesses face in China is too many laws, some of which are in conflict with others.

I agree that having too many laws that people skirt leads to a denigration of the rule of law, but I fear the government likes things pretty much as they are. There is a Russian story I always tell that illustrates why I believe China likes so many laws. Many many years ago, an executive of a well known company called me for my views as to how it should handle going into Russia via Moscow. I called a Russian client of mine for the answer. This client is Russian and this client has been doing business with the very top echelons of the Russian government for about 30 years. He definitely told me that this US company needed to win over Moscow's mayor or something would go wrong. He told me he assumed the US company would not want to pay a bribe and he said Moscow's mayor is not going to be interested in that anyway. But, he said this company needed to do something very public to let Muscovites know that the mayor had been looking after the people in allowing this company to come in. My client suggested this American company donate a large sum to a local hospital or orphanage and publicize it with a big ceremony at which the mayor would be the honored guest. He said if this company did not do something like this, they would surely find themselves bogged down in some sort of lawsuit involving noise restrictions or something like that.

I passed all of this information on to the executive, who told me his company had never operated that way anywhere in the world. When I pointed out that his company had yet to go into any place like Russia, he poo-poohed me. My client was right and the American company was wrong. The American company ended up getting bogged down in a lawsuit that my client insisted would have been handled within weeks not years had this company done what my client had prescribed.

Which gets me back to my theory on too many laws. The more laws, the more likely one is to be in violation of one of them. And if everyone is in violation of a law, then everyone is beholden to the good graces of the government to avoid being fined or jailed.

what do you think?