Foreign Law and Chinese Law (Reflections on the Introduction of Foreign Law in 20th Century China)

Author: Li Xiuching, He Qinhua
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-05-01
Features: This book makes new explorations in the following aspects:
Focus on Historical Facts: The book covers the entire process of China's transplantation of foreign law in the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on the introduction of Western methods in the 1930s and the transplantation of Soviet law after the 1950s. In the discussions of these two periods, we emphasize the collection and use of original materials. At times, the book even includes excerpts and statements from various archival and historical documents. We believe that a reflection on China's transplantation of foreign law in the 20th century can only be effectively carried out by thoroughly interpreting a large amount of primary historical materials. Only by allowing the facts themselves to speak can we help readers gain a relatively objective, fair, and comprehensive understanding of the development of Chinese law over this century.
Setting Special Topics: The development and evolution of Chinese law in the 20th century are complex and rich in content. Based on the materials we have, even a multi-volume work would not be enough to fully cover the topic. To highlight the key points, in a book with over 500,000 words, we adopted a model of research within a largely complete system. Under each chapter, we set several special topics, each of which is an independent paper. The entire manuscript consists of 28 papers. This approach of writing the book through papers allows our research to reach a deeper level.
Emphasizing Reflection: The main purpose of this book is to reflect on the transplantation of foreign law in 20th-century China. This purpose is proposed in response to the confusion and debates in Chinese academia regarding the search for a path toward the modernization of Chinese law and legal studies. Since the late Qing Dynasty's legal reforms in the early 20th century, there has been ongoing debate in Chinese modern and contemporary legal and academic circles: whether the modern legal and academic system should prioritize Western methods or preserve and promote traditional Chinese legal culture. Even a century later, as China has initially established a modern legal and academic system based on the transplantation of foreign law, as mentioned above, we still have doubts about the pros and cons of this transplantation. Therefore, it is very necessary to conduct an in-depth reflection on the practices of transplanting foreign law that have taken place over the past century in China. To this end, in addition to dedicating Chapter 6 to a reflection on the transplantation of foreign law, we have also appropriately included our comments and explanations in each paper, ensuring that reflection becomes a fundamental thread throughout the book.