THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF CHINA

WEEK 1
LECTURE OUTLINE

§ Course introduction and resources

§ Today’s topic and background
§ The legal system of China: dual feature
§ The Chinese legal system and civil & common law traditions
§ Discussion
COURSE AIM

Puzzle: How has the country achieved rapid economic

growth in the past four decades in the absence of
Western-style legal and democratic systems, both of
which are conventionally viewed to be essential to
economic development?
QUICK FACTS ABOUT CHINA

¡ Population: 1.4 billion

¡ Economy: second largest economy in the world
¡ GDP: 18 trillion; per capita: >12K USD (2021)
¡ History: recorded history of over 5000 years
¡ Establishment of PRC: 1949
¡ Ethnicity: 92% Han; over 50 official ethnic groups
QUICK FACTS ABOUT CHINA
LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Articulate the role of legal and political reforms in

China’s economic growth, particularly the reforms
aimed at establishing market mechanisms and
separating the Communist Party and the Chinese
state.
LEARNING OUTCOMES

2. Evaluate the effects of major reform projects and

processes in China’s legal and political systems that
are associated with building a market economy,
including positive achievements and remaining
deficiencies and challenges.
LEARNING OUTCOMES

3. Use case studies to demonstrate the dynamism of

China’s social and economic transition during the
reform era.
LEARNING OUTCOMES

4. Employ a cultivated sensitivity to cultural, social,

historical and political-economy issues that arise in
the implementation of rule of law reform projects and
in the transformation of the Party-State in China.
LEARNING OUTCOMES

5. Explain China’s economic miracle in comparison

with the experience of other developing countries
with or without well-defined rule of law and vigorous
political democracy, such as India and Russia, and
assess whether China has shown an alternative
possibility of modernity.
 ASSESSMENT
Assessment Details Weight
Participation Active participation in tutorial discussion 20%

Essays Writing one essay (2,000-2,500) on 60%

assigned topics discussed in lectures Dec. 10
based on understanding and reflection of
reading material, class discussion, as well
as individual research

Presentation Making an oral presentation on one of 20%

the essays (15 min) Dec. 10
READINGS FOR THIS COURSE
USEFUL RESOURCES
¡ Student counselling services:
¡ https://www.cedars.hku.hk/cope

¡ Writing
¡ HKU Writing Centre
https://www.caescss.hku.hk/writing-centre
¡ Andrea Lunsford, The Everyday Writerthe
QUESTIONS
THE LEGAL SYSTEM
 BACKGROUND
§ What is the place of the law in China’s economic development?
§ Conventional wisdom
§ China’ s protection of property rights and the legal system are weak
§ We see this a lot in the literature, especially those describing the 1980s
and 1990s
§ This conventional wisdom is over-simplistic
§ Today, we start with an overview of the basic legal structure of
China’s legal system.
 KEY IDEA: THE DUAL FEATURE
¡ The role of the CCP
¡ The CCP is in de facto control of the legal system
¡ Legislation, executive, and judiciary

¡ Constraint of power & check and balance

¡ On the other hand, the legal system tries to formalize the power
hierarchy and constrain the power of
¡ Executive (the bureaucratic system) “块块”
¡ Local governments “条条”
STRUCTURE OF THE GOVERNMENT

¡ Three Branches of a typical government

¡ Legislative
¡ Executive
¡ Judicial

¡ Their Relation can be:

¡ Paralleled: US
¡ Hieratical: most of the countries in the world
NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS

¡ The highest organ of state power and the national legislature.

¡ About 3,000 members/people’s representative.
¡ Meets in full session for roughly two weeks each year and
votes on important pieces of legislation and personnel
assignments.
¡ Due to the temporary nature of the plenary sessions, most of
NPC's power is delegated to its standing committee, which
consists of about 170 legislators and meets in continuous bi-
monthly sessions.
 Regionally Decentralized Authoritarian system (RDA)
¡ Constitutionally, the party's highest body is the Party Congress, which is
supposed to meet at least once every five years.
¡ Meetings were irregular before the Cultural Revolution but have been
periodic since then.
¡ The Party Congress elects the Central Committee and the primary organs of
power are formally parts of the central committee.
 Regionally Decentralized Authoritarian system (RDA)
¡ The primary organs of power in the Communist Party include:
¡ The General Secretary, which is the highest-ranking official within the Party
and usually the Chinese Paramount leader.
¡ The Politburo, consisting of 25 full members (including the members of the
Politburo Standing Committee);
¡ The Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful decision-making body
in China, which as of June 2020 consists of seven members;
¡ The Secretariat, the principal administrative mechanism of the CCP, headed by
the General Secretary;
¡ The Central Military Commission;
¡ The Central Discipline Inspection Commission, which is charged with rooting
out corruption and malfeasance among party cadres.
 Regionally Decentralized Authoritarian system (RDA)
¡ The primary organs of power in the Communist Party include:
¡ The Politburo, consisting of 24-25 full members (including the members of the
Politburo Standing Committee);
¡ Include many provincial party secretaries

¡ The Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful decision-making body

in China, which as of 2023 consists of seven members;
¡ Most of these seven members have local experience
 Regionally Decentralized Authoritarian system (RDA)
¡ The CCP's most important responsibility comes in the selection and
promotion of personnel.
¡ Most top leaders are promoted from local governments and have local
experience
¡ The central CCP has effective control over the whole party
¡ Organizational
¡ Disciplinary
¡ Ideological (?)
STRUCTURE OF THE GOVERNMENT

¡ Inner-party democracy
¡ Though all nominations for the Central Committee are decided
beforehand, since the 13th Party Congress in 1987, in the spirit of
promoting "inner-party democracy", the number of candidates up for
election for both full members and alternate members have been
greater than the number of available seats.
¡ Nominees for the Central Committee who receive the lowest number of
votes from Party Congress delegates are thus unable to enter the Central
Committee.
¡ At the 18th Party Congress, a total of 224 candidates stood for election
for full membership for a total of 205 seats. A total of 190 candidates
stood for election for a total of 171 alternate seats. This meant that 9.3%
of full member candidates and 11.1% alternate member candidates were
not elected.
STRUCTURE OF THE GOVERNMENT

¡ Age and turnover of membership

¡ Since the 1980s, the membership of the Central Committee has
experienced rapid turnover, mostly due to the institutionalization of
the system of promotions for party officials as well as an informally
mandated retirement age, currently set at 65 for minister-level
officials (which comprise the majority of the members of the Central
Committee).
¡ Informal constitution

¡ The average age of members in the 18th Central Committee is 56.1

years. From the 1980s onwards, an average of 62% of the membership
of the outgoing Central Committee has been replaced at each party
congress.
STRUCTURE OF THE GOVERNMENT

¡ Age and turnover of membership

¡ Since most members are at least 50 years old when they enter the
body, the mandatory retirement age essentially serves as a 'term limit'
on the entire membership of the Central Committee, whereby no
member or group of members could conceivably serve longer than
three terms on the Central Committee.
¡ It also makes forming enduring political factions difficult.
¡ This makes the body much more fluid than most national legislatures,
for which term limits do not generally apply.
¡ This has prevented the emergence of a gerontocracy as was common
in the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea; by the same token,
officials younger than 45 have next to no chance of being elected
onto the body.
THE DUAL FEATURE

¡ Constraint of power & check and balance

¡ Hierarchy & official sources of law
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ Constitution
¡ 宪法

¡ Statutory Law
¡ 制定法

¡ Judicial Interpretation
¡ 司法解释

¡ Treaties
¡ 条约
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ Constitution
¡ The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China is the highest law
within China.
¡ The Constitution has five sections
¡ preamble
¡ general principles
¡ fundamental rights and duties of citizens
¡ structure of the state
¡ the national flag and the emblems of the state
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ Constitution
¡ The current version was adopted in 1982 with further revisions in
1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004.
¡ And 2018!
¡ What’s new?
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ Constitution
¡ What’s new in the 2018 amendment?
¡ Paragraph 3 of article 79 of the Constitution that reads “The term of
office of the President and Vice President of the People’s Republic of
China is the same as that of the National People’s Congress, and they
shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.” is amended to
read:“The term of office of the President and Vice President of the
People’s Republic of China is the same as that of the National
People’s Congress.”
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ The Law of Legislation (立法法)

¡ A law that functions as constitution
¡ Stipulates the sources of law
¡ Hierarchy of law

¡ 立法法 The Law of Legislation (2015 amended)：

http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/dbdhhy/12_3/2015-03/18/content_1930713.htm
¡ The Law of Legislation (2000 version):
http://www.chinalawedu.com/new/23223a23228a2010/20101219shangf165653.
shtml
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ The Law of Legislation (立法法)

¡ Stipulates the hierarchy of legislative power
¡ Constrains the power of the executive and the local governments
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
法律渊源

¡ Statutory Law (Mind your terminology!)

¡ Laws (fa lü)
¡ (法律)
¡ Administrative Regulations (xing zheng fa güi)
¡ (行政法规)
¡ Local Regulations (di fang fa güi)
¡ (地方法规)
¡ Administrative Rules (xingzheng güizhang)
¡ (行政规章)
¡ Military Regulations
¡ (军事法规)
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Statutory Law
¡ Laws (fa lü) (法律)
¡ promulgated by the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its
Standing Committee.
¡ Law of legislation, general principle of civil law, contract law, property
law, torts liability law, criminal law, administrative procedure law, etc.
¡ 《立法法》《民法通则》《合同法》《物权法》《侵权责任法》
《刑法》《行政诉讼法》《行政许可法》《公司法》《银行法》
《证券法》《民事诉讼法》《刑事诉讼法》……
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

《立法法》第八条 下列事项只能制定法律：
Law of Legislation Article 8 Only national law may be enacted in respect of
matters relating to:
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
(一)国家主权的事项；
(i) state sovereignty;
(二)各级人民代表大会、人民政府、人民法院和人民检察院的产生、
组织和职权；
(ii) the establishment, organization and authority of various people's
congresses, people's governments, people's courts and people's
procuratorates;
(三)民族区域自治制度、特别行政区制度、基层群众自治制度；
(iii) autonomy system of ethnic regions, system of special administrative
region, and system of autonomy at the grass-root level;
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

(四)犯罪和刑罚；
(iv) crimes and criminal sanctions;
(五)对公民政治权利的剥夺、限制人身自由的强制措施和处罚
(v) the deprivation of the political rights of a citizen, or compulsory
measures and penalties involving restriction of personal freedom;
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

（六）税种的设立、税率的确定和税收征收管理等税收基本制度
(vi) fundamental institutions regarding taxation, including the setting of
tax items and tax rates, and the system of tax collection and management;
(七)对非国有财产的征收、征用；
(vii) expropriation and use of non-state assets;
(八)民事基本制度；
(viii) fundamental civil institutions;
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

(九)基本经济制度以及财政、海关、金融和外贸的基本制度；
(ix) fundamental economic system and basic fiscal, customs, financial
and foreign trade systems;
(十)诉讼和仲裁制度；
(x) litigation and arbitration system;
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

(十一)必须由全国人民代表大会及其常务委员会制定法律的
其他事项。
(xi) other matters the regulation of which must be carried out
through enactment of national law by the National People's
Congress or the Standing Committee thereof.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

第九条本法第八条规定的事项尚未制定法律的，全国人民代表大会及
其常务委员会有权作出决定，授权国务院可以根据实际需要，对其中的部
分事项先制定行政法规，但是有关犯罪和刑罚、对公民政治权利的剥夺和
限制人身自由的强制措施和处罚、司法制度等事项除外。
Article 9 In the event that no national law has been enacted in respect of a
matter enumerated in Article 8 hereof, the National People's Congress and the
Standing Committee thereof have the power to make a decision to enable the
State Council to enact administrative regulations in respect of part of the
matters concerned for the time being, except where the matter relates to
crime and criminal sanctions, the deprivation of a citizen's political rights,
compulsory measure and penalty restricting the personal freedom of a citizen,
and the judicial system.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ The procedure of enacting a law is rigorous, for example:

¡ 第二十九条 列入常务委员会会议议程的法律案，一般应当经三
次常务委员会会议审议后再交付表决。
¡ Article 29 A bill which has been put on the agenda of the Standing
Committee session shall in general be deliberated three times in the
current session of the Standing Committee before being voted on.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ The procedure of enacting a law is rigorous, for example:

¡ 常务委员会会议第一次审议法律案，在全体会议上听取提案人的
说明，由分组会议进行初步审议。
¡ During the first deliberation of the bill at the current Standing
Committee session, the bill sponsor shall brief the plenary session,
whereupon preliminary deliberation shall be conducted by divided
group sessions.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ The procedure of enacting a law is rigorous, for example:

¡ 常务委员会会议第二次审议法律案，在全体会议上听取法律委员
会关于法律草案修改情况和主要问题的汇报，由分组会议进一步
审议。
¡ During the second deliberation of the bill at the current Standing
Committee session, the Legislative Committee shall brief the plenary
session on the status of amendment and major issues in respect of
the draft law, whereupon further deliberation shall be conducted by
divided group sessions.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ The procedure of enacting a law is rigorous, for example:

¡ 常务委员会会议第三次审议法律案，在全体会议上听取法律委员
会关于法律草案审议结果的报告，由分组会议对法律草案修改稿
进行审议。
¡ During the third deliberation of the bill at the current Standing
Committee session, the Legislative Committee shall give a report to
the plenary session on the result of the deliberation on the draft law,
whereupon deliberation on the amended draft law shall be conducted
by divided group sessions.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Do (or do not?) panic when you hear the following

news/rumors:
¡ The government will levy property tax from 2023!
¡ 国家从2019年开始就要征房产税了！

¡ (Exception) The government will increase car purchase tax

(News released by some media on Nov. 16th, 2016)
¡ 国家要提高车辆购置税了（一些媒体在2016年11月16日报道）
Some media reported that,
according to some informant,
relevant government departments
are considering increasing consumer
tax of luxurious cars by 10%.
Ministry of Finance
State Administration of Taxation
Notice
10% increase of consumer tax of
luxurious car (price > 1.3M)
Released on Nov. 30th , 2016
Effective on Dec. 1st, 2016
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Exception:
¡ Provisional Regulations of the People's Republic of China on
Consumption Tax
¡ 中华人民共和国消费税暂行条例

¡ As compared to
¡ Property tax
¡ Individual Income Tax Law
¡ 个人所得税法
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Article 2. The taxable items tax rates (tax amounts) of consumption

tax shall be determined in accordance with the Consumption Taxable
Items and Tax Rates (Tax Amounts) Table attached to these Regulations.
Any adjustments to the Consumption taxable items, tax rates (tax
amounts) shall be determined by the State Council.
¡ 第二条 消费税的税目、税率（税额），依照本条例所附的《消费
税税目税率（税额）表》执行。
消费税税目、税率（税额）的调整，由国务院决定。
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Do panic when you hear the following news/rumors:

¡ Shenzhen is going to levy a car purchasing restriction. A household
can only have one car from 2019 on.
¡ 深圳要限购汽车了！
¡ Suzhou is going to levy a property purchasing restriction!
¡ 苏州要限购住房了！
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ The NPC process

¡ Control of executive power
¡ Control of local power

¡ Is NPC (and its standing committee) a rubber stamp?

¡ It is, as it is an instrument of the CCP
¡ It is not, as it provides effective control of powers within the
government
¡ And it is becoming increasingly powerful
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Statutory Law
¡ Administrative Regulations (xing zheng fa güi) (行政法规)
¡ promulgated by the State Council
¡ …条例 (tiao li)
¡ Regulations
¡ 《政府信息公开条例》《基金会管理条例》《招投标法实施条例》
《国有土地上房屋征收与补偿条例》《信访条例》《储蓄管理条
例》
¡ "Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information" "Foundation
Management Regulations" “Regulations on the Implementation of the
Tender Law" “Savings Management Regulations"
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Statutory Law
¡ Local Regulations (di fang fa güi) (地方性法规)
¡ promulgated by local People’s Congress (hereinafter Local People’s
Congress) and its standing committee.
¡ 《广东省水利工程管理条例》
¡ Guangdong Province water conservancy project management regulations
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Statutory Law
¡ Local Regulations (di fang fa güi) (地方性法规)
¡ Does Shenzhen’s people’s congress have the authority to make local
regulations? Research it in Law of Legislation (立法法).
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Statutory Law
¡ Administrative Rules (xingzheng güizhang) (行政规章)
¡ Local Rules (difang zhengfu güizhang) (地方政府规章): promulgated by the
local governments;
¡ 广东省渡口渡船安全管理办法（粤府令第224号），上海市雷电防护管理
办法
¡ Departmental Rules (bumen güizhang) (部门规章): promulgated by the
ministries and commissions under the State Council, the People’s Bank of
China, the Auditing Office, and other departments with administrative
responsibilities directly under the State Council.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Statutory Law
¡ Military Regulations (军事法规)
¡ promulgated by the Central Military Commission in accordance with
the Constitution and the Laws, and Military Rules enacted by the
lower level military authorities within their powers and
responsibilities.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Hierarchy and effectiveness

¡ 宪法>法律>法规>=规章(>通知>会议纪要…)
¡ Constitution > Law > Regulation> Administrative rule>…

¡ Find law
¡ 法律效力谁高？Higher effectiveness?
¡ 行政法规 vs. 地方性法规
¡ What about Administrative Regulation vs. Local Regulation?
¡ 部门规章 vs. 地方政府规章
¡ Department Rule vs. Local Rule?
¡ Find it in the Law of Legislation
¡ Get your hands dirty!
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW
¡ Judicial Interpretation
¡ Judicial precedents (判例) are not binding in China.
¡ This is one of the major differences between civil law and common law
countries.
¡ What are other features that separate a civil law regime from a common
law regime?
¡ Legal origins, selection of judges, jury trial (this is conventional wisdom, but
wrong), codification (wrong)

¡ The Supreme People’s Court (SPC), however, bears the authority to

issue Judicial Interpretations (sifa jieshi) (司法解释) as guidelines to
the trials, which are nationally enforceable.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Guiding cases
¡ Judicial precedents (判例) are not binding in China.
¡ (Conventional wisdom)
¡ The pattern is blurred
¡ 《最高人民法院关于案例指导工作的规定》(2010年11月26日) 第七条
各级人民法院在审判类似案件时应当参照指导性案例。
¡ Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Guiding Cases (26
November 2010) Article 7 People's courts at various levels shall refer to
the guiding cases in the adjudication of similar cases.
¡ 178 guiding cases as of Dec. 2021
¡ In actuality, Chinese judges largely follow prior cases.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF LAW

¡ Treaties
¡ The treaties (tiao yue) (条约) China has entered are also legally
effective documents.
¡ The PRC Constitution (宪法) and the Law of Legislation (立法法) do not
provide the relationship between treaties and domestic law.
EXERCISE

¡ Example 1: In the following legal documents, which one belongs

to administrative regulations?
¡ A. “The Company Law of the People’s Republic of China” formulated by
the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
¡ B. “The Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Foreign
Exchange Control” formulated by the State Council
¡ C. “Regulations on Certified Public Accountants in Shenzhen special
economic zone” enacted by the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress
¡ D. “The measures for the administration of RMB bank settlement
accounts” formulated by the People’s Bank of China.
EXERCISE

¡ 例题 1：下列规范性文件中，属于行政法规的是
¡ A. 全国人民代表大会常务委员会制定的《中华人民共和国公司法》
¡ B. 国务院制定的《中华人民共和国外汇管理条例》
¡ C. 深圳市人民代表大会制定的《深圳经济特区注册会计师条例》
¡ D. 中国人民银行制定的《人民币银行结算账户管理办法》
EXERCISE

¡ Example 2: “The measures for the administration of

information disclosure of listed companies” formulated by
the China Securities Regulatory Commission is:
¡ A. Law
¡ B. Administrative Regulation
¡ C. Departmental Rule
¡ D. Judicial Interpretation
EXERCISE

¡ 例题 2 中国证券监督管理委员会制定的《上市公司信息
披露管理办法》属于:
¡ A. 法律
¡ B. 行政法规
¡ C. 部门规章
¡ D. 司法解释
EXERCISE

¡ Example 3 Regarding effectiveness of law, which is the

correct order (from high to low)?
¡ A. Constitution, Administrative Regulations, Departmental Rules,
Laws
¡ B. Constitution, Laws, Departmental Rules, Administrative
Regulations
¡ C. Constitution, Administrative Regulations, Laws, Departmental
Rules
¡ D. Constitution, Laws, Administrative Regulations, Department Rules
EXERCISE

¡ 例题3 下列关于各种法律渊源效力层级由高到低的排序
中，正确的是
¡ A. 宪法、行政法规、部门规章、法律
¡ B. 宪法、法律、部门规章、行政法规
¡ C. 宪法、行政法规、法律、部门规章
¡ D. 宪法、法律、行政法规、部门规章
TYPES OF LAW AND LITIGATION
TYPES OF LAW AND LITIGATION

¡ Civil law, criminal law, and administrative law

¡ Civil litigation
¡ Civil law division of a court

¡ Criminal litigation
¡ Criminal law division

¡ Administrative litigation
¡ Administrative law division
¡ The government is the defendant (民告官)
REVIEW
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW
TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ The legal system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is

defined by the government as a “socialist legal system.”
¡ Despite the official definition, however, China’s legal system is
based primarily on the model of Civil Law.
¡ Civil law, continental law
¡ 民法法系，大陆法系，欧陆法系
¡ Common law
¡ 普通法系，英美法系

¡ What is “model/tradition of civil law?”

CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ Civil law jurisdictions

¡ China, France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, etc.

¡ Common law jurisdictions

¡ UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada (except where?), Hong Kong,
Singapore, etc.
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ General differences (conventional wisdom)

¡ History
¡ Codification & Source of laws
¡ Role of judges
¡ Trial & Role of lawyers
¡ Jury
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系
¡ History
¡ Civil law jurisdictions
¡ developed in continental Europe and was applied in the colonies of
European imperial powers such as Spain and Portugal.
¡ Common law jurisdictions
¡ have evolved primarily in England and its former colonies, including all but
one US jurisdiction and all but one Canadian jurisdiction.
¡ For the most part, the English-speaking world operates under common
law.
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ Codification & Sources of laws

¡ Civil law jurisdictions
¡ the legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates their laws
¡ contract law, property, torts, etc.

¡ Common law jurisdictions

¡ judge-made precedent is accepted as binding law
¡ Lochner vs. New York, 198 US 45 (1905);
¡ Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015), etc.

¡ Both
¡ Written laws: Constitution, statutes, government regulations, ordinance,
etc.
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ Role of judges
¡ Civil law jurisdictions
¡ Chief investigator;
¡ makes rulings, usually non-binding to third parties.
¡ In a civil law system, the judge’s role is to establish the facts of the case
and to apply the provisions of the applicable code.
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ Role of judges
¡ Common law jurisdictions
¡ Makes rulings;
¡ sets precedent;
¡ referee between lawyers.
¡ Judges decide matters of law and, where a jury is absent, they also find
facts.
¡ Most judges rarely inquire extensively into matters before them, instead
relying on arguments presented by the parties
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系
¡ Trial & Role of lawyers
¡ Civil law jurisdictions
¡ Inquisitorial system
¡ The inquisitorial system used in some civil law systems where a judge or
group of judges investigates the case.
¡ Common law jurisdictions
¡ Adversarial system
¡ The adversarial system or adversary system is a legal system used in the
common law countries where two advocates represent their parties'
positions before an impartial person or group of people, usually a jury or
judge, who attempt to determine the truth of the case.
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系
¡ Jury (conventional wisdom)
¡ Civil law jurisdictions
¡ Few

¡ Common law jurisdictions

¡ Widely used

¡ Controversies around lay participation in judicial decision-

making
¡ A problem in the common law systems
¡ Apparently Taylor Swift Got Picked for Jury Duty!
¡ It’s unclear what phase of the trial this is, but it’s safe to
say that tweeting out photos of a fellow juror, even if that
juror is Taylor Swift, is definitely not allowed. So this case
is probably screwed.
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系
¡ Selection of judges
¡ Civil law jurisdictions
¡ Career judges

¡ Common law jurisdictions

¡ Lawyers appointed to become judges
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系
¡ The U.S.
¡ In the 113th Congress, 156 of the 435 members of the House of
Representatives and 55 out of the 100 Senators elected were lawyers
(Manning 2014).
¡ Moreover, twenty-five out of forty-three Presidents have been
lawyers (Slater 2008).
¡ Turning to state executive positions, twenty-four out of the current
fifty state governors have law degrees. (Barton 2014, p. 30).
CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW TRADITIONS
大陆法系和普通法系

¡ The U.S.
¡ All state high court justices are former lawyers, and thirty-two states
explicitly require that their high court justices be former lawyers
(Barton 2014, p. 30).
¡ All judges currently serving on the federal courts are lawyers, as are
all nine justices sitting on the Supreme Court.
TRIAL & JUDGES
DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION

¡ China has promulgated a wide range of law, and many laws

are effectively enforced.
¡ The government in most circumstances needs to act according to the
law, needs to follow the law.
¡ Why do we think there is still a lack of the rule of law in China?
¡ Thank you!