The Making Of The Chinese Civil Code

This book is the first attempt in the English language to study and evaluate the new Chinese Civil Code.

Currently, China is drafting its new Civil Code. Against this background, the Chinese legal community has shown a growing interest in various legal and legislative ideas from around the world. Within this context, the present book aims at providing the necessary historical and comparative legal perspectives. It concentrates on substantive private law and civil procedure, both in China and in other jurisdictions. These perspectives are of considerable importance for the present codification work. Additionally, the book is dedicated to commemorating the centennial of the first Western-influenced and civil law-oriented Civil Code of China, the Da Qing Min Lü Cao An of 1911. The following topics are addressed: property law, contract law, tort law and civil procedure. The book also contains contributions on codification experiences in Europe and on the concept of codification in general. The topics are discussed by leading Chinese and international scholars. Most of the Chinese contributors have taken part in preparing the Chinese Draft Civil Code. The book is the outcome of a conference organized by the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (RCCL), School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, in October 2010.

This contribution provides the important and timely bilingual version of the Chinese Civil Code and the Supreme People’s Court’s Judicial Interpretation of the Temporal Effect of the Civil Code. Providing translations by a diverse group of esteemed legal scholars, on Contract Law, Tort Law, Marriage, Family and Succession Law, General and Personality Provisions and Property Law, this unique resource will be important for all those with an interest in Chinese Law.

In modern times, the codification of the entire civil law has become a rare phenomenon. Nevertheless, the Chinese law-maker has decided to create the first Civil Code in the history of PRC and set out an ambitious timeline to achieve this goal. In the process of construction, the future Chinese Civil Code will principally follow the Pandectist System and, in particular, contain a General Part. On 15th March 2017, the General Part was enacted, as scheduled, in the form of a single statute for the time being. By 2020, the other books covering the law of personality, obligations, property law, family and estate law, should be codified as well. These books, together with the General Part, will form the future Civil Code. The purpose of this book is to provide a concise and in-depth practical guide to this new statute, namely the General Rules of Civil Law (GRCL). To this end, it seeks to deliver a general picture of the GRCL and to explore the important provisions in more detail. In addition, it strives to provide answers to the question of which laws apply in the case of conflict between the GRCL and other statutes. What is also equally important is to provide the readers with information about the origin of legal concepts in the GRCL and the process in which Chinese lawmakers decided to adopt or reject certain foreign legal concepts

This book is an English translation of the Draft Chinese Civil Code prepared by the Legislative Group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences headed by Prof. Liang Huixing, which is officially mandated by the Legislative Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.

The opening of local archives to Western scholars in the 1980's has provided the basis for this reexamination of civil law in Qing and Republican China. This pathbreaking volume demonstrates that, contrary to previous scholarly understanding, Qing and Republican courts dealt extensively with such civil matters as land rights, debt, marriage, and inheritance, and did so with striking consistency and in conformity with the written code.

This is an abridged translation of the principal Chinese textbook on civil law, which was published as part of the restructuring of China's legal system following the Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party in late 1978. Because the closest thing China has to a civil code - the General Provisions of Civil Law enacted in 1986 - is very incomplete, this treatise is an authoritative source on the subject. "Basic Principles of Civil Law in China" translates those portions of the Chinese text that are likely to be most useful for foreigners dealing with China, such as material on contracts, torts, joint-ventures, negotiable instruments and technology transfer. It also contains general material on such matters as agency and partnership, the general principles of juristic persons, and statutes of limitations.