Towards A 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.

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.

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

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This Research Guide will be the first step in your journey with Chinese law. China grows more important every day from a global perspective. However, studying and conducting research on Chinese law can be extremely challenging, especially if you do not know Mandarin well. This book is intended as a compact but comprehensive research guide that would provide students (especially those who are preparing coursework or dissertations about Chinese law), researchers and legal practitioners with the necessary knowledge about how to conduct effective Chinese legal research.