Civil Customs and Customary Law in the Civil Code of the Early Republic of China

Author: Li Weidong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: In the early years of the Republic of China, civil law practice remained in a state of codification absence, leaving ample room for judicial personnel to apply civil customs. The Supreme Court established the legal status of civil customs in judicial proceedings through case law and interpretive precedents. During this period, discussions on customs and customary law among various sectors of society bore distinct social and temporal characteristics. At the same time, certain individual statutes, such as the "Measures for the Rectification of Real Estate Pledges," reflected the gradual maturation of the legal community in the early Republic of China in handling civil customs and related legal issues. In legal practice, civil customs and modern law maintained a two-way interactive relationship. By examining the relationship between state law and folk customs in the early Republic of China, it can be observed that the state strengthened its control over society, and the relationship between the state and society was often characterized by tension. In conflicts between the state and the folk society, the state held a clear advantage, and the space for society gradually shrank.