On December 21, 2022, a series of seminars on the basic theory of charity law - the public benefit of charity" was successfully held through the online platform of Tencent Conference, hosted by the Center for the Study of Nonprofit Organization Law of Peking University. The seminar was hosted by Prof. Deng Guosheng, Vice Dean of School of Public Administration, Tsinghua University, and the guest speakers were Associate Professor Jin Jinping, Director of Center for the Study of Nonprofit Organization Law, Peking University, Professor Lv Xin, Dean of Law School and Director of Center for Welfare and Rule of Law (Charity Law Research Center), Zhejiang University of Technology, and Associate Professor Ma Jianyin, Law School, Beijing Normal University. The seminar was supported by Peking University's Dao-An Law Foundation. 

Lecture Highlights

Ms. Jin Jinping firstly expounded the view that charity in law needs to be based on the element of public welfare. Secondly, Ms. Jin analyzed how to define the public benefit of charity from both the perspective of China's legal regulations and comparative law. Finally, Ms. Jin argued that public welfare does not point to any specific goal, nor is it the sum of specific results achieved, but rather the abstract order of provision. 

Mr. Lv Xin believes that the primary problem of the Charity Law lies in how the law defines "charity", and the key to answering this question lies in defining the concept of "public welfare", which is at the core of the concept of charity. Mr.Lv then elaborated on the function of the concept of public welfare from both the formal and substantive aspects. According to Mr.Lv, public welfare should be regarded as a normative concept and defined in a concrete way, which is different from public interest. Therefore, the key issue in the revision of the Charity Law is to redefine the concept of public interest.

Mr.Ma introduced the semantics and usage of charity and public welfare, and analyzed the meaning and relationship between the two concepts in legal and life contexts. Then, Mr.Ma analyzed the reasons for the confusion between the concepts of "charity" and "public welfare", saying that charity refers to private public welfare, and public welfare is the sum of governmental and private public welfare. Finally, Mr.Ma proposed to consider whether the amendment of the Charity Law can solve the existing problems, including the review standard of public welfare, the self-regulation of the industry, the recognition of the effect of the new "public welfare", the positioning and interaction between the government and the people, the government and the social forces, and the "community The public nature of "community" and the effect of public welfare. 

Through this seminar, teachers elaborated their understanding of the public welfare of charity, and the discussion on the public welfare of charity is of great significance and value for the future revision of charity law and the formulation of related policies in China.

Translated by: Zhu Minhui

Edited by: Chen Hong