On Contemporary Chinese Legal System

This book delivers a comprehensive, insightful, and updated analytic description of contemporary Chinese legal system. From a macro perspective, it presents, both theoretically and empirically, the evolution of Chinese law, describing its distinctive features, comparing it with other experiences across the world, and exploring the influence of economic, social, cultural, and technological factors thereon. From a micro perspective, based on the latest laws and regulations so promulgated and relevant research, this book briefly summarizes the basic theories and knowledge of existing law in the PRC, including the Constitution, civil law, criminal law, administrative law, procedural law, intellectual property law, economic law, etc. With this book, not only law students, lawyers, and those who have a background in Chinese law but also general readers can catch a penetrating glimpse into the fast-changing Chinese legal system.

China’s legal system is vast and complex, and robust scholarship on the subject is difficult to obtain. Inside China’s Legal System provides readers with a comprehensive look at the system including how it works in practice, theoretical and historical underpinnings, and how it might evolve. The first section of the book explains the Communist Party’s utilitarian approach to law: rule by law. The second section discusses Confucian and Legalist views on morality, law and punishment, and the influence such traditional Chinese thinking has on contemporary Chinese law. The third section focuses on the roles of key players (including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legal academics) in the Chinese legal system. The fourth section offers Chinese legal case studies in civil, criminal, administrative, and international law. The book concludes with a comparison of China’s fundamental governing and legal principles with those of the United States, in such areas as checks and balances, separation of powers, and due process. Uses extensive legal materials and historical documents generally unavailable to Western based academics Gives insider knowledge, including first-hand experience teaching law, and close involvement with judges, attorneys, and law professors in China Analyses legal issues from historical and cultural perspectives holistically

Annotation View the Table of Contents .nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Read the Introduction .>

Recently scholars have become increasingly aware that the study of Chinese law can provide new insight into the forces actually at work in Chinese society in different epochs. In an effort to encourage and facilitate the study of this subject, the thirteen essays of this volume deal with the methodology of studying the legal system of the People's Republic, describe the available research materials, and analyze the problems presented in making the materials of Chinese law intelligible to Western readers. They also review foreign works on Chinese law and explore the difficulties involved in translation and in comparing the Chinese system to our own and to that of the Soviet Union. Mr. Cohen's thoughtful introduction provides an excellent survey of the worldwide development of studies of Chinese law. It also delineates the nature of the essays that he and the eleven other scholars have contributed to the volume.

The book was first published in 1997, and was awarded the first prize of scientific research by the Ministry of Justice during the ninth Five-Year Plan of China. In 2005, it was adopted the text book for the postgraduates of law majors. In 2009, it was awarded the second prize of the best books on law in China. The book discusses from different aspects the long legal tradition in China, and it not only helps us to have a further understanding of Chinese legal system but also combines theories and practice and illustrate the modern legal transition which probes the history of Chinese legal system. As is known to us all, China is a country with a long legal history, which can be traced back to more than three thousand year ago. So the legal tradition of China has been passed down from generation to generation without any interruptions. This feature is peculiar to Chinese legal history which is beyond all comparison with that of other countries such as ancient Egypt, ancient India, ancient Babylon and ancient Persia. Through the study of Chinese legal history we can have a deeper understanding of the histories, features, origins and the transition of Chinese legal tradition. The Chinese legal tradition originated from China, and it is the embodiment of the wisdom and creativity of Chinese civilization. The great many books, researching materials, legal constitutions, archives, files and records of different dynasties in China have provided us with rare, complete and systematic materials to research. The book has a complete, systematic and detailed research on Chinese legal tradition and its transition and it gives people a correct recognition of the process of the perfection of laws during its development and its position as well as its value in the social progress in order to grasp its regular patterns. It also has showed us the most valuable part and core of Chinese legal Tradition and it is a summary of Chinese legal tradition and its transition from different perspectives, different angles and different levels. From the book, we can see that the ancient Chinese Legal Culture had once shocked the world and exerted great influence on the civilization of the world legal system, especially the legal systems in Asian countries. The book also has discussed the reestablishment of law in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Chinese law’s transition to modernity. In a word, the book has not only combined the legal system and the legal culture together, but also integrated the important historical figures and events ingeniously and it is a valuable and readable book with authenticity.

Like the previous edition in 2008, this book examines the historical and politico-economic context in which Chinese law has developed and transformed, focusing on the underlying factors and justifications for the changes. It attempts to sketch the main trends in legal modernisation in China, offering an outline of the principal features of contemporary Chinese law and a clearer understanding of its nature from a developmental perspective. It provides comprehensive coverage of topics: ‘legal culture’ and modern law reform, constitutional law, legal institutions, law-making, administrative law, criminal law, criminal procedure law, civil law, property, family law, contracts, torts, law on business entities, securities, bankruptcy, intellectual property, law on foreign investment and trade, Chinese investment overseas, dispute settlement and implementation of law. Fully revised, updated and considerably expanded, this edition of Chinese Law: Context and Transformation is a valuable and important resource for researchers, policy-makers and teachers alike.

This book examines the historical and politico-economic context in which Chinese law has developed and transformed, focusing on the underlying factors and justifications for changes. It attempts to sketch the main trends in legal modernisation in China.

The 'rule of law' is more than the mere existence and application of law within the sphere of state activity. Contemporary Chinese debate on the 'rule of law' underlines the limiting of arbitrary government, the materialisation of 'human rights', legal protection of 'rights and interests' and the principle of equality in the impartial legal mediation of conflicts within society's 'structure of interests'. Based upon China interviews and a comprehensive survey of the domestic press and Chinese-language legal journal materials, this book places pre- and post-Tiananmen Square legal reform in political context. The evolving contents of specific laws across the departments of constitutional, administrative, criminal, civil and economic law are assessed in light of the politics and intellectual dynamic of China's legal circles in their struggle to create a 'rule of law'.