1 - China
Legal reform in an emerging socialist market economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
By
Summary
Introduction
The People's Republic of China (hereinafter China, or PRC) is the current name of the Chinese nation which has lasted for several thousand years as a country and civilisation. China is also the world's most populous country, with a population estimated at 1.34 billion in 2009. Although officially there are 56 ethnic groups in China, Han Chinese forms about 92 per cent of the population. It is also one of the largest countries in land size, in which there are tremendous disparities among regions in economic development, culture, dialects and traditions. Although the numbers of believers of the religions Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Taoism in China are among the world's largest, they constitute nevertheless a very small portion of the Chinese population. In fact, there has never been a dominant religion that was able to convert the majority of the Chinese people.
After several decades of rapid economic growth, China is now the world's second largest economy, simultaneously the largest exporter and second largest importer in world trade. It is also a self-proclaimed socialist state governed by one political party, the Communist Party of China (CPC or Party), which took over power in 1949 after defeating the Nationalist Party in a civil war. Chinese society has undergone tremendous change since 1949, including the socialist transformation of the economy in the 1950s, the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, the Tiananmen Square event in 1989, the abandonment of the planned economy in favour of capitalism, the market economy and privatisation during the reform era of 1979 to the present, accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, and the Beijing Olympics Games in 2008.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Law and Legal Institutions of AsiaTraditions, Adaptations and Innovations, pp. 24 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
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, ‘Xin Yilun Sifa Tizhi Gaige Zhixiang’ [‘The Direction of the New Round of the Judicial Reform’], Liangwang Xinwen Zhoukan [Outlook News Weekly], 5 January 2009Google Scholar
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, Zhongguo Falu Fazhan Baogao – Shujuku he Zhibiao Tixi [China Legal Development Report – Databank and Assessment Criteria], Renmin Daxue Chubanshe [Renmin University Press], Beijing, 2007Google Scholar
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Zuigao Renmin Fayuan Guanyu Shenli Xingzheng Anjian Shiyong Falv Guifan Wenti de Zuotanhui Jiyao, promulgated by the SPC on 18 May 2004, SPC document number: Fafa (2004) 96 Hao
Zuigao Renmin Fayuan Guanyu Sifa Gongkai de Liuxiang Guiding [Six Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Judicial Transparency], promulgated by the SPC on 8 December 2009, SPC document number: Fafa (2009) 58 Hao
Zuigao Renmin Fayuan Guanyu Sifa Jieshi Gongzuo de Guiding, promulgated by the SPC on 23 March 2007, SPC document number: Fafa (2007) 12 Hao
China's Partnership Enterprise Law (1997; Rev 2006)
Civil Procedure Law (1991; Rev 2007)
Constitution [Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xianfa] (1982)
Criminal Procedure Law (1979; Rev 1996)
Law on Guarding State Secrets (1988)
Law on Judges (1995; 2001 Rev)
Law on Supervision of the Standing Committee of People's Congresses (2006)
Lawyers Law (1996; Rev 2007)
Legislation Law [Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Lifafa] (2000)
Organic Law of the People's Courts (1979; Rev 2006)
Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates (1979; Rev 1983)
, ‘Legal Thought and Legal Development in the People's Republic of China 1949–2008’ (28 March 2009) Social Science Research Network <http://ssrn.com/abstract=1369782>
, ‘The Chinese Legal System’ (4 July 2005) <http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/ChineseLegalSystem.html>
, and , ‘Zhongguo Gaoyuan Yuanzhang Yiban Wei Dangzheng Chushen, Duoren Weizai Fayuan Gongzuo’ [‘Half of the High Court Presidents were Formally Party or Government Officials, and Many of Them Never Had Judicial Experience’] (20 July 2009) Sichuan Online/Chengdu Commercial Daily <http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2009-07/20/content_11736366.htm>
PRC Ministry of Justice website, <http://www.moj.gov.cn/>
, China's Efforts and Achievements in Promoting the Rule of Law (28 February 2008) Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China <http://www.china.org.cn/government/whitepaper/node_7041733.htm>
Supreme People's Court <http://www.court.gov.cn/>
, Work Report of Supreme People's Court of China (delivered at the Third Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 11 March 2010) The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China <http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/xinwen/2010–03/18/content_1564249.htm>
Work Report of the Supreme People's Court (delivered at the Second Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 10 March 2009) <http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/files/spc_work_report.html>
, Work Report of National People's Congress Standing Committee (delivered at the Second Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 9 March 2009) The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China <http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Speeches/2009-03/16/content_1493447.htm>
, ‘Shenru Guanche Luoshi Kexue Fazhanguan, Cujin Jingji Pingwen Jiaokuai Fazhan, Baozhang Shehui Gongping Zhengyi, Weihu Shehui Hexie Wending’ [‘Deeply Implement the Concept of Scientific Development, Promote Stable but Relatively Fast Economic Growth, Safeguard Social Fairness and Justice, and Maintain Social Harmonization and Stability’] (speech delivered at the National Conference on Political-Judicial Work, 17 December 2008), available at People's Daily Online <http://www.people.com.cn/>
, ‘Socialist Law, Civil Law, Common Law, and the Classification of Contemporary Chinese Law’, in , , and , (eds), Law-Making in the People's Republic of China, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 2000Google Scholar
An Introduction to the Legal System of the People's Republic of China, LexisNexis, Hong Kong, 2004Google Scholar
, ‘Market Economy and the Internationalization of Civil and Commercial Law in People's Republic of China’, in (ed), Law, Capitalism and Power in Asia, Routledge, London, 1999Google Scholar
, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden and Boston, 2008Google Scholar
, ‘The Many Meanings of the Rule of Law’, in (ed), Law, Capitalism and Power in Asia, Routledge, London and New York, 1999
, , and , ‘The Role of Law in China's Economic Development’, in and (eds), China's Great Economic Transformation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008Google Scholar
, ‘Puzzling Observations in Chinese Law: When Is a Riddle Just a Mistake?’, in (ed), Understanding China's Legal System: Essays in Honor of Jerome A Cohen, New York University Press, 2003
, , ‘The Chinese Legal System: A Primer for Investors’, New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law, vol. 17, no. 2 & 3, 1997, p. 345Google Scholar
, The Law-Growth Nexus: The Rule of Law and Economic Development, Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC, 2006Google Scholar
, ‘Carry Out the Policy of Opening to the Outside World and Learn Advanced Science and Technology from Other Countries’ (10 October 1978), Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, vol. II (1975–82), available at People's Daily Online <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/dengxp/contents2.html>Google Scholar
, ‘Of Parliaments, Pragmatism, and the Dynamics of Constitutional Development: The Curious Case of China’, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, vol. 35, no. 1, 2002, p. 1Google Scholar
, and , China: A New History, 2nd enlarged ed, The Belknap Press Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006Google Scholar
, and , Waiguo Fa Yu Zhongguo Fa – Ershi Shiji Zhongguo Yizhi Waiguo Fa Fansi [Foreign Law and Chinese Law – A Reflection on the Transplantation of Foreign Law in China in the 20th Century], China University of Political Science and Law Press, Beijing, 2002Google Scholar
‘Hu Jintao Jiu Zuohao Zhengfa Gongzuo Tichu 5 Dian Yaoqiu’ [‘President Hu Jintao Makes Five Demands for Good Political-Legal Work’], Xinhua, 25 December 2007
and , ‘Dalu Sifa Tizhi Gaige Zhuan Xiang’ [‘Judicial Reform in the Mainland Has Turned to a Different Direction’], Fenghuang Zhoukan [Phoenix Weekly], 25 February 2009Google Scholar
, ‘Sources of Order in Chinese Law’, American Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 42, no. 4, 1994, p. 711CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Minfa Zonglun (Di-er Ban) [General Introduction to Civil Law], 2nd ed, [Law Press China], Beijing, 2004Google Scholar
, Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform, W W Norton & Company, New York and London, 2004Google Scholar
, ‘China's Courts: Restricted Reform’, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, vol. 21, no. 1, 2007, p. 1Google Scholar
, ‘Lawyers, Political Embeddedness, and Institutional Continuity in China's Transition from Socialism’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 113, no. 2, 2007, p. 352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, China's Long March Toward Rule of Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Competing Conceptions of Rule of Law in China’, in (ed), Asian Discourses of Rule of Law: Theories and Implementation of Rule of Law in Twelve Asian Countries, France and the US, Routledge, London and New York, 2004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Courts as Legislators’, The Rule of Law in China Series: Policy Brief 1, The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford, 2006Google Scholar
, China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007Google Scholar
, Tradition of the Law and Law of the Tradition: Law, State and Social Control in China, Green Wood Press, Westport, 1997Google Scholar
, Governance and Politics in China, 2nd ed, Palgrave Macmillian, New York, 2004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Work Report of the Supreme People's Court at the Second Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 10 March 2009
, On the Rule of Law: History, Politics, Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Lex Rex or Rex Lex? Competing Conceptions of the Rule of Law in Singapore’, UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal, vol. 20, no.1, 2002–03Google Scholar
, ‘The Rule of Law in China: A Realistic View of the Jurisprudence, the Impact of the WTO, and the Prospect for Future Development’, Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 2004, p. 347Google Scholar
, ‘Xin Yilun Sifa Tizhi Gaige Zhixiang’ [‘The Direction of the New Round of the Judicial Reform’], Liangwang Xinwen Zhoukan [Outlook News Weekly], 5 January 2009Google Scholar
, ‘Legal Pragmatism in the People's Republic of China’, Journal of Chinese Law, vol. 3, no. 1, 1989, p. 29Google Scholar
, ‘Zhongguo Fayuan Yu Jieshu Chuilian Duan'an’ [‘Courts in China Want to End the Practice of Holding the Court from Behind a Screen’], Nanfang Zhoumo [Southern Weekend], 15 November 2007Google Scholar
, Zhongguo Falu Fazhan Baogao – Shujuku he Zhibiao Tixi [China Legal Development Report – Databank and Assessment Criteria], Renmin Daxue Chubanshe [Renmin University Press], Beijing, 2007Google Scholar
, China's Legal Reform: Towards the Rule of Law, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leden and Boston, 2006
Guanyu Jiaqiang Renmin Fayuan Shenpan Gongkai Gongzuo de Ruogan Yijian [Several Opinions Concerning Strengthening the Open Trial Work of the People's Court], promulgated by the Supreme Court of China (SPC) on 4 June 2007, SPC document number: Fafa (2007) 20 Hao
Zuigao Renmin Fayuan Guanyu Shenli Xingzheng Anjian Shiyong Falv Guifan Wenti de Zuotanhui Jiyao, promulgated by the SPC on 18 May 2004, SPC document number: Fafa (2004) 96 Hao
Zuigao Renmin Fayuan Guanyu Sifa Gongkai de Liuxiang Guiding [Six Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Judicial Transparency], promulgated by the SPC on 8 December 2009, SPC document number: Fafa (2009) 58 Hao
Zuigao Renmin Fayuan Guanyu Sifa Jieshi Gongzuo de Guiding, promulgated by the SPC on 23 March 2007, SPC document number: Fafa (2007) 12 Hao
China's Partnership Enterprise Law (1997; Rev 2006)
Civil Procedure Law (1991; Rev 2007)
Constitution [Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xianfa] (1982)
Criminal Procedure Law (1979; Rev 1996)
Law on Guarding State Secrets (1988)
Law on Judges (1995; 2001 Rev)
Law on Supervision of the Standing Committee of People's Congresses (2006)
Lawyers Law (1996; Rev 2007)
Legislation Law [Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Lifafa] (2000)
Organic Law of the People's Courts (1979; Rev 2006)
Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates (1979; Rev 1983)
, ‘Legal Thought and Legal Development in the People's Republic of China 1949–2008’ (28 March 2009) Social Science Research Network <http://ssrn.com/abstract=1369782>
, ‘The Chinese Legal System’ (4 July 2005) <http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/ChineseLegalSystem.html>
, and , ‘Zhongguo Gaoyuan Yuanzhang Yiban Wei Dangzheng Chushen, Duoren Weizai Fayuan Gongzuo’ [‘Half of the High Court Presidents were Formally Party or Government Officials, and Many of Them Never Had Judicial Experience’] (20 July 2009) Sichuan Online/Chengdu Commercial Daily <http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2009-07/20/content_11736366.htm>
PRC Ministry of Justice website, <http://www.moj.gov.cn/>
, China's Efforts and Achievements in Promoting the Rule of Law (28 February 2008) Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China <http://www.china.org.cn/government/whitepaper/node_7041733.htm>
Supreme People's Court <http://www.court.gov.cn/>
, Work Report of Supreme People's Court of China (delivered at the Third Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 11 March 2010) The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China <http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/xinwen/2010–03/18/content_1564249.htm>
Work Report of the Supreme People's Court (delivered at the Second Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 10 March 2009) <http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/files/spc_work_report.html>
, Work Report of National People's Congress Standing Committee (delivered at the Second Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress, 9 March 2009) The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China <http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Speeches/2009-03/16/content_1493447.htm>
, ‘Shenru Guanche Luoshi Kexue Fazhanguan, Cujin Jingji Pingwen Jiaokuai Fazhan, Baozhang Shehui Gongping Zhengyi, Weihu Shehui Hexie Wending’ [‘Deeply Implement the Concept of Scientific Development, Promote Stable but Relatively Fast Economic Growth, Safeguard Social Fairness and Justice, and Maintain Social Harmonization and Stability’] (speech delivered at the National Conference on Political-Judicial Work, 17 December 2008), available at People's Daily Online <http://www.people.com.cn/>
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