Full Description
China's legal system is vast and complex, and robust scholarship on the subject is difficult to obtain. Inside China's Legal System provides readers with a comprehensive look at the system including how it works in practice, theoretical and historical underpinnings, and how it might evolve. The first section of the book explains the Communist Party's utilitarian approach to law: rule by law. The second section discusses Confucian and Legalist views on morality, law and punishment, and the influence such traditional Chinese thinking has on contemporary Chinese law. The third section focuses on the roles of key players (including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legal academics) in the Chinese legal system. The fourth section offers Chinese legal case studies in civil, criminal, administrative, and international law. The book concludes with a comparison of China's fundamental governing and legal principles with those of the United States, in such areas as checks and balances, separation of powers, and due process.
Contents
DedicationList of abbreviationsAcknowledgmentsForeword 1Foreword 2About the authorsIntroduction: justice with a Chinese faceA 'socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics'Historical reforms in Chinese lawComparing Chinese and American legal systemsAmerican perspectives on Chinese lawHuman rights commentary and the Chinese responseQuestions raised by the Chinese legal systemPositive developmentsThis bookPart I: Historical views1: Philosophical underpinnings of the Chinese legal systemAbstractConfucianismConfucius's view of lawConfucius's view of historyCritical thinking on ConfuciusThe resurgence of Confucianism in ChinaMenciusLegalismQin and the first emperorHidden rules and law in imperial ChinaLaw versus moralityPenal codesNo lawyers or legal profession2: China and the Western influenceAbstract'100 years of humiliation'Unequal treaties between 1842 and 1949 and extraterritorialityNationalismThe Foreign Affairs Movement and the ti-yong dichotomyThe failed '100 days reform' in 1898 and late Qing reformsRepublic of China'The People's Republic'Anti-Rightist Movement, Great Leap Forward and Great FamineCultural RevolutionThe trial of the Gang of FourThe case of Yu LuokeThe case of Zhang ZhixinTiananmenPart II: The players3: The judiciaryAbstractThe party and the judiciaryNon-independent judiciaryStructureSupreme People's CourtAre fayuan courts?'Judges'Judicial examinationJudicial corruptionProcuratoratesAccess to court information4: The policeAbstractDefinitionsOverviewGoverning lawRe-education through laborMaintaining stability or weiwen'Guobao' and 'drinking tea'Internet policeDetention, torture and extrajudicial killingsYang Jia caseWen Qiang caseWang Lijun case5: The lawyersAbstractLawyers as a 'bad element'History of the legal profession in ChinaLawyers in the PRCLegal educationRegulating lawyersNew rules for the punishment of lawyers'They came for lawyers'Lawyers, law professors and troublemakers: Zhang Sizhi, Jiang Ping, Pu ZhiqiangLi Zhuang casePart III: Case studies6: Civil laws and casesAbstractGeneral principles of civil lawSelected civil lawsCommercial lawCivil procedureRepresentative cases7: Criminal laws and criminal casesAbstractCriminal lawCriminal procedureCriminal Procedure Law amendmentsThe case of Liu XiaoboRepresentative cases in criminal lawThe CPC and criminal law8: The curious case of Ai Weiwei and administrative lawAbstractTimelineProcedureThe 'tax' caseAdministrative law in ChinaPetitionPart IV: ConclusionAfterwordIs constitutionalism incommensurable with Chinese socialism?Important updatesConclusionAppendix 1: Constitution of the People's Republic of ChinaPreambleChapter I: General PrinciplesChapter II: The Fundamental Rights and Duties of CitizensChapter III: The Structure of the StateChapter IV: The National Flag, the National Anthem, the National Emblem and the CapitalAppendix 2: The socialist legal system with Chinese characteristicsForewordI Establishment of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristicsII Composition of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristicsIII Features of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristicsIV Improvement of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristicsConcluding remarksAppendix 3: Charter '08I ForewordII Our fundamental principlesIII What we advocateSelected readings and resources for further research in Chinese law and historyIndex
