Bird in a Cage: Chinese Law Reform after Twenty Years (original) (raw)

Cage for the Birds: On the Social Transformation of Chinese Law, 1999-2019

China Law and Society Review, 2020

In his book on legal reform in China after Mao, Stanley B. Lubman adopted the metaphor “bird in a cage” to describe the status of Chinese law at the turn of the twenty-first century. This article offers some general reflections on the social transformation of Chinese law since 1999, with the objective of explaining (1) how the legal bird has become a cage, and (2) how this new legal cage has been used to trap birds in Chinese society. It first traces the transformation of the legal bird into a cage in China’s reform era and then tells the stories of four species of birds currently confined in the legal cage, namely, hawks (state officials), crows (rights activists), sparrows (netizens), and ostriches (ordinary citizens). Laws related to the four species are concerned with combating corruption, political stability, internet control, and everyday life, respectively. By focusing on the four species of birds in the legal cage, this article offers a fresh understanding of how law interacts with various individuals and social groups in Chinese society and a sociolegal explanation of the social transformation of China’s legal system from 1999 to 2019.

JURA 2013/2. 142 Monika Zalewska: A bird in a Cage: Chinese Constitutional Rules and Law Reform

In 1918 Oswald Spengler in Decline of the West pre-dicted that western civilization will lose its privileged status. Regarding that, the beginning of XX century was a period of unquestioned domination of our region, this thesis could seem to be unlikely to come true, although after world War I there was not much optimism in Europe. Right now, one hundred years later, we are witnessing how this prophecy comes true. Western civilization loses its dominant posi-tion in favor of China. In this context everyone is aware of the importance of the question about the shape of China today and its prospects in the future. Obviously, the answer must be very complex and it is impossible to provide it in a short paper, so I will focus on the legal aspect, especially regarding Constitutional rules. The aim of this paper is not to simply describe all constitutional regulations of the People's Republic of China (the PRC), but to provide profound understanding how Chinese legal system works. To a...

Chinese Legal Reforms: Transformations in a Decade

2024

This book explains the details and underlying thinking of many major reforms to Chinese law and legal practice that have taken place since 2013. It draws widely on laws and regulations, policies, cases, official statistics as well as the latest Chinese and foreign literature. The informed analysis answers intriguing questions such as why China runs the world’s largest database of court judgments without recognising any precedent, or why the number of judges was cut by 40% despite a more than doubled caseload. Ultimately it offers a new approach on how to understand Chinese law and legal reforms in the contemporary world.

In search of Chinese jurisprudence : does Chinese legal tradition have a place in China's future?

Qut Business School School of Accountancy, 2009

Over the last few decades economic reforms have been the primary policy objective in Asia, legal reforms were however treated as a by product. If China wishes to create a uniquely modern economy, commercial laws should be economically conducive as well as culturally receptive. However, Chinese legal tradition and philosophies are quite different from those of Western counterparts. So can Chinese jurisprudence, if there is such a thing, be adapted for a rapidly growing economy in a globalised world? This article will attempt to tackle these challenging issues and offer some tentative suggestions. Introduction: Over the last few decades, economic reforms have been a key policy objective in Asia. Legal reforms were however treated as a by product. Legislators and regulators in Asia did not appear to give much thought to consider the compatibility of new commercial laws with their cultural heritage and social norms. The People's Republic of China (China) is a prime example. Many new commercial laws such as company law, securities law, and antimonopoly law were recently introduced. These laws were transplanted primarily from the US and European Union as Chinese officials assumed that if it worked in those countries it would work in China. What the Chinese authorities failed to realise is that the fundamental values and rights attached to these Western laws are entwined in the Western legal traditions. Hence, the embedded ideological and cultural contradictions with Chinese culture and heritage have not been addressed. Undoubtedly, China needs to move with the times to enact commercial laws that are in line with international investors' expectations. Yet, the lack of experience of Chinese authorities means that the government does not have much option apart from drawing inspiration from Western countries.

Paradigm Shift in Chinese Legal Studies

Hua S. (eds), Paradigm Shifts in Chinese Studies. , 2022

This chapter aims at offering a brief sketch of the changed and ever-changing paradigms in contemporary Chinese legal studies. The authors identify here two general paradigm shifts across the legal scholarship and academia of legal studies in the post-1978 China which are: de-Sovietization and de-Marxization, on the one hand, and legalization of market economy and Westernization of law, on the other. Since legal science is rather a comprehensive area of research which can be further divided into many sub-areas, the authors choose to develop the central theme of paradigm shift around the three broad sub-areas of law that are: legal theory/jurisprudence, public law, and private law. Finally, the authors also advise to adopt a realistic lens to observe and reflect the subtle process of paradigm shift in Chinese legal studies and to closely observe the ongoing development of legal scholarship “with Chinese characteristics” today.