Judge said Case 3: Marriage and Family Disputes Case

Author: Chen Guoqiang, Wang Lianxi (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-19
Features: In the history of China, case law has served as an important legal form and played a significant role. During specific historical periods, its status and function even surpassed that of statutes. Zhu Xi once said, "Generally speaking, legislation must have flaws, and there is no law without flaws." In judicial practice, case law emerged to address the shortcomings of statutes. From the Yu Shi (officials) in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Cheng Shi (completed affairs) in the Spring and Autumn period (as recorded in the Analects of Confucius, "The Master said: 'Completed affairs should not be discussed, ongoing affairs should not be admonished, and past affairs should not be blamed'"), the Bi (comparisons) and Lei (categories) in the Warring States period, the Ting Shi (judicial precedents) in the Qin dynasty, the Jue Shi Bi (precedents by analogy) in the Han dynasty, the Fa Li (legal examples) in the Tang dynasty, to the Duan Yi (judicial decisions) in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the Liao Yi (regulations) in the Ming and Qing dynasties, ancient case law practice, like the compilation of ancient statutes, endured continuously, demonstrating remarkable vitality. Especially during the Qing dynasty, the system of establishing precedents based on cases was formally established. Case law underwent several stages—cheng an (established cases), ding li (fixed precedents), and ru lu (incorporation into statutes)—before ultimately being integrated into statutes as provisions, becoming annotations to the main text of the statutes. With the development of society, statutes continuously drew nourishment from judicial practice, allowing them to be amended and improved. The legal system of parallel statutes and case law (li yi bing xing), where case law supplemented statutes and evolved into statutes, eventually matured. This legal framework, unique in the world, exhibits considerable scientific and rationality.