On January 7, 2022, the thirty-first keynote speech of the "Fudan Transnational Corporations and Law Forum" and the fifth episode of this Forum's special series of "TNCs and Financial Law" was held successfully online. The speech entitled "Cross-border Law Enforcement and Data Access in the Extraterritorial Application of Financial Law" was delivered by Associate Professor GUO Huachun of International Law School, East China University of Political Science and Law, commented by Associate Researcher SUN Nanxiang of the Institute of international law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and hosted by Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow JIANG Chaoyi of Fudan University Law School.

Professor GUO kicked off the speech with the controversies arising from multilateral enforcement jurisdictions caused by the weak territoriality of data in light of China's policy of "Attack while Defend" in the context of cross-border data access. He dived into the difficulties in accessing data in cross-border law enforcement involving the extraterritorial application of financial law. Based on the confidentiality and publicity of financial data and the necessity of cross-border flow of financial data, Professor GUO put forward some suggestions on how China should construct its approaches to financial data access in cross-border law enforcement.

Professor GUO had a keen insight that the inefficient traditional MLAT official path cannot satisfy the practical needs of the rapid flow of data amid global digitalization. Therefore, he proposed strengthening the protection of data by building a data classification and grading mechanism and that China should take the path of public-private cooperation, which would simplify the MLAT official path and build a private path to obtain evidence directly from overseas data service providers.

In the commenting session, Dr SUN spoke highly of Professor GUO's speech, which studied the extraterritorial application of financial law from the perspective of data access in cross-border law enforcement. He underscored the consistency of this study with the existing practice of China on the extraterritorial rule of law. Dr Sun pointed out that allowing law enforcement agencies to directly access financial data from private actors is related to inter-state coordination and the balance between state power and data protection. Particularly, he emphasized that government should restrict the private power of service providers that control a large amount of data in cyberspace governance.

At the end of the lecture, Professor ZHANG Naigen and Professor CAI Congyan both contributed remarks that overview the events of the Fudan TNCs and Law Forum in the past year. They looked forward to a more active role played by the Forum in strengthening the academic vitality of the international law discipline of Fudan University, promoting research on China's foreign-related rule of law, and enhancing exchanges and cooperation with international law colleagues at home and abroad. They also wished the colleagues inside and outside the university could continue supporting and participating in the forthcoming activities in 2022. The series of lectures of Fudan TNCs and Law Forum ended with warm applause.