Zhang on The Private Law Influence of the Great Qing Code @ZhangTaisu @YaleLawSch @CambridgeUP

Taisu Zhang, Yale Law School, has published The Private Law Influence of the Great Qing Code in The Making of the Chinese Civil Code 249-268 (Hao Jiang & Pietro Sirena eds., Cambridge Univ. Press, 2023). Here is the abstract.

This chapter considers the socioeconomic functionality of legal codes and codification through the lens of late imperial Chinese legal history. Specifically, it asks whether formal legal codes can wield significant influence over private socioeconomic behavior despite being poorly enforced—or even unenforced—and whether such influence derives, in part, from the symbolic value of codification itself. It argues that the answer to both questions is likely “yes,” at least in the context of Qing Dynasty private law. This contains potentially generalizable insights into the nature of legal authority and prestige, some of which may potentially be applied to the recent passage of the Chinese Civil Code in 2020.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.