Contemporary Chinese Legal System
Topic outline
-
-
Program:China Studies, SISU
Course Title:Contemporary Chinese Legal System
Class Hours:3periodsper week,11weeksin total
Internship: 1persemester
Language of Instruction:English
Instructor:Dr.Haihong Liu received her B.A. from Law School of Fudan University, Legum Magister from University Mannheim, Germanyand Ph.D. from East China University of Law and Science.She worked at the China Desk of the Law Firm Gleiss Lutz Hootz Hirsch in Frankfurt Germanyfrom May,2010to October2012 and returned in 2013 to teach at the Law School of Shanghai International Studies University. Professor Liu was a visiting scholar at the Law School of University Colorado at Boulder intheUSAand the Law School of Queensland University of Technology in Australia.Her research area is intellectual property law and comparative law.
Course Website:http://elearning.www.wcrra.com/course/view.php?id=65
Course Description and Objectives:
This courseis optionalfor all the program students, whichoffers an overview of the contemporarylegal system of the People's Republic of China.It will first discussthe historical, philosophical, and ideological foundations of modern Chinese law;thenitsurveysthefoundation ofthe Chinese legal system-the constitutional system.After that, the Chinese laws in operation will be explored with reference to case discussion in the area of public law, civil law, business law and foreign investment law.Finally, it exploresthe dispute resolution andthe implementation and enforcement of lawsinthe country.Further an internship is providedand the students will have the opportunity to visit a selected institution of law and have meeting with the legal professionals.The course is based on theories of legal sociology and legal pluralism.Thestudentsareencouragedtotake amulti-disciplinary andcomparative approach to the study of Chinese legal system,understanding Chinese legal system as it is embedded in the historical, cultural, economic, political framework of China bycomparing and contrasting Chinese law principles and concepts with thecounterpartsin their home countries.The students shouldunderstand not only the differences themselves but also why there are such differences.
-
-
Please click “网盘” to watch or down load the lecture videos for view at:
-
Readings:
- Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 1
- Handout 1:
- Albert H.Y. Chen, An Introduction to the Legal System of the People’s Republic of China 1-5 (3d ed. 2004)
- Teemu Ruskola,Legal Orientalism, 101 Mich. L. Rev. 179 (2002)
- Glenn R. Butterton,Pirates, Dragons and U.S. Intellectual Property Rights in China: Problems and Prospects of Chinese Enforcement, 38 Ariz. L. Rev. 1081 (1996)
- Fei Xiaotong,From the Soil- The Foundations of Chinese Society
-
Please choose one aspect of legal culture we have discussed about Chinese legal culture in last lecture, and prepare a report concerning the comparison of Chinese legal culture with that in your home country, and submit your work online for peer evaluation.
-
-
-
Legal developments and the experience of law in People's Republic of China started with the introduction of Chinese-style Marxist ideology, the Chinese contemporary legal system undergoes domestic political upheavals and globalisation.
Readings:
- Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 2
- Daniel Arthur LAPRÈS and Zhang YueJiao,Introduction to Chinese Legal System
- Mo Zhang,The Socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics: China’s discourse for the rule of law and a bitter experience
-
Please search the relevant archive of the public media in your home country during the past several years (2-5 years) and collect the relevant coverage on Chinese legal system. Produce a report on such coverage. In your report, please identify the major issues concerning Chinese legal system covered in the relevant news report , the opinions of such reports, basic values reflected in these reports. Summarize the Chinese legal system as reported in these news coverage and give your personal analysis or assessment of such coverage.
If there is very limited coverage on this topic, please also try to analyze the reasons for the limited coverage.
-
Please upload your research findings concerning the Chinese Legal System in News Coverage in your home country to this wiki file and edit a wiki file together with the other fellow students.
-
Please present the findings of your research on the topic given, and share your point of view with other fellow students and have further discussions.
-
-
Please watch the video and discuss the following issues:
Similarity between Contemporary Chinese legal system and other western legal systems
Difference between Contemporary Chinese legal system and the American Legal sytems
People's resort to courts for achieving justice and resolving disputes
Different situation of justice in different parts of China
-
Please watch the speech of Prof. Jerome Cohen and discuss the following issues:
- domestic and global factors in the development of legal system in PRC
- economic and political factors in the development of legal system in PRC
- What does that mean by the saying "there's no law" in China?
- How are the perspectives and opinions of foreign legal practitioners and scholars on Chinese legal development different from each other? why?
-
A constitution is the fundamental law of a legal system, in this class the history and basic contents of Chinese constitution will be explored, the features of Chinese constitution will be discussed.
Readings:
- Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 3
- Larry Catá Backer, Rule of law , the Chinese communist party and ideological campaigns: Sange Daibiao (the Three Represents), Socialist Rule of law and modern Chinese Consitutionalism
- Jiangyu Wang, The rule of law in China: a realistic view of the jurisprudence, the impact of the WTO, and the prospects for future development
-
-
Please watch the interview of the speaker on the rule of law in China and discuss the following issues:
-- what are the aspects which reflect the development of rule of law in China according to the speaker?
-- What other reports about the above aspects have you read on the public media in your home country?
-- Do your agree with the speaker on the above aspects? why or why not?
-- Based on the three orders of civilization proposed by Prof. Yu xingzhong (as mentioned in Lecture 1), what other aspects should we pay attention to when we make comments on the rule of law in a country?
-- What is the situation of rule of law in your home country with respects to the above aspects?
-
-
-
Readings:
- Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 4
- Randall Peerenboom, Judicial Independence in China: Common Myths and Unfounded Assumption
l Xin He, “Judicial Decision-Making in an Authoritarian Regime: Piercing the Veil of the adjudication Committee in a Chinese Court”
l Yulin Fu and Randall Peerenboom, A New Analytic Framework for Understanding and promoting Judicial Independence in China
l Qianfan Zhang, “The People’s Court in Transition: The Prospects of the Chinese Judicial Reform”
- Weidong Ji, “Judicial Reform in China and Its Political Implications”
- Cheng Li, “The Rise of the Legal Profession in the Chinese Leadership”, Chinese Leadership Monitor Nr. 42
-
-
What are the measures recently taken in the judicial reform in China?
-
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 17:03
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 17:21
-
In this topic, we will explore the Chinese Constitution, the fundamental law in Chinese legal system, which set the basic framework of Chinese legal system. Constitutionalism and rule of law is a heated discussed topic in Chinese legal reform, students are encouraged to understand the current situation of rule of law in China, identify the major problems and reasons for them.
Readings:
Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 5
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Please watch the video discuss the following questions:
major issues in the recent development of Chinese legal system
major aspects of judicial reform in China
What are the problems in the current judicial reform according to the speaker?
What are the problems in the current fighting against corruption in China according to the speaker?
-
Public law regulates the relationship between individuals and the state, it includes constitution, criminal law, administrative law and labor law. In this subtopic, we will take administrative law as an example to illustrate the public laws in China.
The systemic study of administrative law started in China in the early 1980s and has been heavily influenced by Western countries, both continental and common law. There is no unanimously accepted definition of the Administrative Law. Some understand it as aming to control the exercise of power by the executive branch of government. Others regard the essense of it to be meeting the needs of public administration.
In this part, the students are guided to understand administrative law through analysis and discussion of some actual cases.
Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 6,7,8
-
Readings:
· Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 9,10,11,12,13
l BjoernAhl, Chinese Law and International Treaties
l Peter K. Yu, Piracy, Prejudice and Perspective: An Attempt to Use Shakespear to Reconfigure the U.S. –China Intellectual Property Debate
l Peter K. Yu, From Pirates to Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property in 21stCentury
l Haihong Liu,Dynamic Application of Transplanted Legal Rules Concerning the Right of Communication through Information Network in China
l Chao Zhou, Intellectual Property Game between China and USA- A Law and Economic Analysis of the WTO Case
l Li Luo, How has Chinese Traditional Culture an Impact on China’s Intellectual Property Legal System? Would this Influence be a Problem in the Protection of Folklore by the Intellectual Property Legal System?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 17:13
-
-
Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2016), Brill Nijhoff, Chapter 18,19
-
-
Reading
- Fu Hualing, From Mediatory to adjudicatory justice: the limits of civil justice reform in China
- Fu Haling, Access to Justice in China: potentials, limits and alternatives
- Randall Peerenboom, Dispute resolution in China: Causes and Prognosis
- Fu Yulin, A new analytic framework for understanding and promoting judicial independence in China
-
-
-
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 15:25
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 16:41
-
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 16:43
-
-
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 17:24
-
Uploaded 13/10/17, 17:26
-
-
-
Internships are provided to afford the students opportunity to experience Chinese legal system in operation.
Visit to Shanghai Hongkou District Court and Hongkou Medical Mediation Center is arranged with on-site discussion with the relevant officials, mediators and judges. Students could ask questions and have face-to-face communication with the mediators. They get to know the complication of medical disputes in China and have deeper understanding of the influence of legal culture and tradition on the resolution of disputes.
Visit to a local law firm is arranged to allow the students to have direct communication with Chinese lawyers, students have first-hand experience of how the law firm is operating, and have opportunity to consult with the Chinese Lawyers on various legal questions they have.
Visit to a law department at an multinational corporation is arranged to allow the students to have direct communication with the in-house lawyers. Students have the understanding of how the legal department function in a multinational corporation in its global business operations.
-