Ho on Chinese Legal Thought in the Han-Tang Transition: Liu Song's Theory of Adjudication

Norman Ho, Peking University School of Transnational Law, is publishing Chinese Legal Thought in the Han-Tang Transition: Liu Song's (D. 300) Theory of Adjudication in volume 35 of the UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal (2018). Here is the abstract.

This article explores and analyzes the fourth century Chinese legal official and legal scholar Liu Song’s (d. 300) theory of adjudication through a full translation into English (the first translation of its kind) of his famous “Memorial on Adjudication,” which urged judicial and legal reforms during the reign of Emperor Hui (r. 290–306) of the Western Jin dynasty (265–316). This article argues that Liu believed that written law should reign supreme over other factors (e.g., societal needs, public opinion) in adjudicating cases. He was also one of the first major Chinese legal thinkers to explicitly set forth what we would today call the “legality principle.” But while Liu’s theory of adjudication was centered on written law, it was also motivated by a desire to control the power and discretion of judicial officials and preserve the authority of the emperor. Liu’s theory of adjudication is significant in the history of Chinese legal thought as it runs counter to the so-called “qing-li-fa” (QLF) theory of adjudication, which has strongly influenced contemporary theoretical accounts and descriptions of traditional Chinese law as a whole. This article also briefly considers Liu’s theory in a comparative legal theory perspective, arguing that Liu’s theory is different from key Western theories on adjudication— namely, Hart’s and Dworkin’s theories of adjudication with respect to hard cases. Finally, this article also briefly discusses the relevance of Liu Song’s legal thought to 21st century Chinese law, given the current Chinese leadership’s penchant for using traditional Chinese political and legal philosophy as sources and justifications for government and administration. This article suggests that Liu Song is a figure whose legal thought could be equally palatable to rule of law reformers and more conservative party officials in China today.

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Norman P. Ho on State of Nature Theory in Chinese Political and Legal Thought

Norman P. Ho, Peking University School of Transnational law, has published State of Nature Theory in Traditional Chinese Political and Legal Thought at 8 Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review 131 (2015). Here is the abstract.

State of nature theory has served as an important theoretical foundation for various political theories. It is usually used to justify the development and existence of certain political institutions and/or to explain why and how a government could come into being from a state of nature. While numerous studies have examined the role of state of nature theory in Western political thought — most notably, in the political thought of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke — very few studies have examined state of nature theory in Chinese political thought. This Article argues that certain traditional Chinese thinkers did in fact explicitly set forth state of nature arguments as theoretical foundations and justifications for their political thought. It describes and analyzes the state of nature theories of three important traditional Chinese thinkers: Mozi (c. 480-390 B.C.), Xunzi (c. 4th to 3rd century B.C.), and Liu Zongyuan (773-819 A.D.). It also compares their respective state of nature theories with one another, as well as with those of Hobbes and Locke. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of its findings on Chinese political and legal theory more broadly.

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Jiang and Hsu on Lorenz von Stein and Chinese Constitutional Legal History

Daw-Yij Jiang and Kuo-Ching Hsu, both of NAtional Sun Yat-sen University, have published Lorenz Von Stein and Chinese Constitutional Movement: A Reexamination of Legal History. Here is the abstract.

This article aims to explore the relationship between Lorenz von Stein and Chinese constitutional movement. It will undertake an historical comparison of events in order to interpret the development of the Chinese constitution during the late Qing and the early period of the Chinese Republic. It is well known that the Chinese constitution (1905-1916) was greatly influenced by the Meiji constitution, but it is often overlooked that the Meiji constitution was actually directly influenced by the German constitution, especially by Stein’s thoughts on political theory. It has always been acknowledged that Stein had an influence on Chinese constitution; however, the relationship was often associated with the connection between Germany, Japan, and China. In this article, we try to explore his influence on those who drafted the Meiji constitution to further understand Stein’s indirect influence on the Chinese constitution through those Japanese pioneers. In particular, we discover the dynamic law of historical change which presents in Stein’s writings, if we review the interactive law between state and society in the Chinese constitutional history.

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Ryan Mitchell on Legal Activism and Demands for Rights in Manchukuo, 1931-1945

Ryan Mitchell, Yale University, has published Legal Activism and Rights Consciousness in a 'Puppet State': Law in Manchukuo's Civil Resistance, 1931-1945. Here is the abstract.

Though a crucial element in Japan’s gradual early 20th century military and economic encroachment on China, the “puppet state” of Manchukuo was also paradoxically characterized by a high degree of legitimizing legal rhetoric. While its political realities generally failed to reflect these idealized foundations, in some capacities the regime actually did provide significant space for legal and other forms of civil society resistance, including by Chinese legal professionals. In order to better understand the early reception of Western, rights-based concepts of law’s social function in East Asia, then, Manchukuo is a valuable subject of study. As this Article shows, there is evidence of at least germinal development of a kind of rights-oriented legal activism that, in the Chinese context, is often viewed as first emerging only in the late-20th century Reform Era.

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Comparing Chinese and Western Approaches To Valuing Love and Law

Xiangyang Qian, University of Edinburgh, has published Love Beyond Law: A Chinese/Western Contrast on Law and Emotion. Here is the abstract.

It has been a tradition in China to value emotion over law until today as shown by a recent case in 2014. Such an attitude makes a sharp contrast to the Western one in terms of the law/emotion relation. The differences are rooted in the understanding of the fundamental concepts of reason, emotion and law. China holds a concept of intuitive reason, concrete and broad concept of emotion, and positive and narrow concept of law while the West has the rational reason, analytic and narrow concept of emotion, and abstract and broad concept of law. The Western conceptualization seems to prevail over the Chinese one, epistemolgocially and technically.

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Criminal Law in the Tang Dynasty

Norman P. Ho, Peking University School of Transnational Law, is publishing Understanding Traditional Chinese Law in Practice: The Implementation of Criminal Law in the Tang Dynasty (618-907)in volume 32 of the UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal (2015). Here is the abstract.

The Tang dynasty (618-907) is regarded as one of China’s most powerful and cosmopolitan dynasties – its achievements in the areas of literature, culture, economic development, and empire-building have influenced subsequent dynasties. The area of legal development is also not an exception – the Tang Code, a penal code which was promulgated in its finalized form in 653 and is the oldest imperial Chinese legal code to survive to the present-day in its entirety – is regarded as an apex in the development of traditional Chinese law. Indeed, the Tang Code served as model penal code for later Chinese dynasties, and the philosophical spirit animating some its provisions continues to influence modern Chinese criminal law today. Given the importance of the Tang Code and the Tang dynasty more generally, it is not surprising that much has been written about the Tang Code and Tang law. Most scholarship, however, has tended to focus on the history of codification and, more specifically, the Tang Code itself – for example, studying its various provisions, the philosophical bases and justifications behind its various provisions, and so forth. Less scholarship has been done to understand how the Tang Code was actually implemented and applied in society and to answer questions such as whether the application of justice (as mandated by provisions of the Tang Code) was applied consistently. Drawing on and introducing various selected historical sources (many of which have never been translated to English), this Article attempts to address these questions and to discuss the implementation of law in traditional China as viewed through enforcement of criminal law and criminal procedure (as set forth in the Tang Code) in the Tang dynasty. This Article argues that the Tang Code seems to have been applied inconsistently in criminal law cases and that there appears to have been discrepancies between what the Tang Code required and how criminal law was actually implemented and enforced in Tang society. Officials tasked with deciding criminal law cases still appear to have had substantial discretion in implementing the Tang Code. These inconsistencies and discrepancies are perhaps a testament to the diversity of approaches for governance and regulation in the Tang, which is not surprising given the geographic size and diversity of the Tang empire. Finally, given the current Chinese leadership’s proclivity for citing what it considers politico-legal models in the Chinese past, it is an especially important time to enhance and better our understanding traditional Chinese law – this Article is ultimately based on the premise that we can only arrive at a full understanding of traditional Chinese law by looking at the application of historical statutes and legal provisions in practice in actual cases, and not simply focusing on the statutes and legal provisions in a vacuum.

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Law and Ritual in China

Mary Szto, Hamline University School of Law, has published Chinese Ritual and the Practice of Law in volume 30 of the Touro Law Review (2014). Here is the abstract.

While there is much literature about the contemporary practice of law in China, almost no articles discuss the rituals involved. This article describes five common Chinese rituals in the contemporary practice of law: drinking tea, banqueting, drinking alcohol, napping, and karaoke. These rituals are traced to their ancient origins in ancestor worship, traditional Chinese medicine, and Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist thought. Then they are explicated for their contemporary meaning. Properly observed, these rituals promote just governance, harmony, balance, and physical and spiritual wholeness. They should be celebrated and practiced without excess.

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Confucius and Chinese Legal Philosophy

Norman P. Ho, Netherlands China Law Centre; Morrison & Foerster (Hong Kong) is publishing Confucian Jurisprudence in Practice: Pre-Tang Dynasty Panwen (Written Legal Judgments) in the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal. Here is the abstract.

Most scholarship on Chinese legal philosophy has neglected the study of Confucian jurisprudence in practice. As a result of this incomplete portrayal, scholars predominantly view the premodern Chinese Confucian legal tradition as lacking a rule of law system, which has led to blaming Confucianism for much of China’s modern and historical rule of law problems. This article seeks to complicate this view by examining Confucian jurisprudence in practice: specifically, the development of pre-Tang dynasty panwen (written legal judgments). Through analysis of specific panwen from various Chinese primary sources — many of which have never been translated into English — this article will show that even in Chinese antiquity the legal system was not solely marked by codification or the lack of the rule of law, but was far more complex and diverse than most scholars have portrayed. For example, elements of case law played an important role in Chinese legal history. Indeed, it is an especially good time to build our understanding of the use of cases and the role of panwen, in China’s legal past given the Supreme People’s Court’s recent emphasis on the role of case law in contemporary Chinese jurisprudence.

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Ritual Eating and Drinking and Chinese Law

Mary Szto, Hamline University School of Law, has published Contract in My Soup: Chinese Contract Formation and Ritual Eating and Drunkenness. Here is the abstract.

Scholars and practitioners alike recognize that contract formation in today’s China requires more than an understanding of black letter law, but knowledge of cultural practices. There is much literature about the legal non-enforceability of contracts, and instead the critical importance of guanxi (relationships), mianzi (face), and interpersonal harmony. However, there is little mention about eating and drinking rituals. These rituals often are the heart of building trust and negotiating terms in China. They may not only be the formation of the contract but the foundation for performance and enforcement as well. However, often these rituals involve drunkenness, which sometimes has turned fatal for contracting parties. Binge drinking is reaching epidemic proportions in China and employers, including law firms, openly recruit persons who can drink heavily. “Ganbei” is a popular toast which means to empty one’s cup. This article explores what I call ganbei contracts, the phenomenon of eating and drinking rituals in contract formation. I first discuss current Chinese contract black letter law, then contemporary ritual eating and drinking, the ancient roots of ritual practice, and then guidelines for proper contemporary practice consonant with a rule of virtue and law. Since time immemorial, ritual eating and drinking have legal meaning in China.

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Chinese Legal Philosophy

Alex Chu Kwong Chan and Angus Young, Department of Accountancy, Hang Seng Management College; School of International Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Centre for International Corporate Governance Research, Victoria University, have published Reinterpreting the Chinese Legal Doctrine of Li: Beyond Rites, Ritual and Ceremonies. Here is the abstract.

For thousands of years Chinese scholars had characterized China’s system of regulation as li yi zhi bang. This literally means that China is governed by the doctrine of li. However, there a general misconception that the doctrine of li was conceived by Confucius, in fact it predates his birth. This paper aims to re-examine this doctrine with the aid of Chinese classics from 1100 B.C., in conjunction with Confucius’s works to explain the meaning and workings of this regulatory concept. Li is multifaceted, versatile, and dynamic doctrine because it more than mere rituals, rites, and ceremonies. It is a form of non-legal and non-rule based regulatory doctrine that centre upon virtue, actualized and practiced through unwritten codes of conduct and behavior. This regulatory doctrine is also varies according to the social hierarchy between individuals, the context of the application, and the heritage of a particular li. The ultimate goal of li to create a civil society, where everyone is in tune with the cosmic order that li is a sub set. Thus, this pre-modern regulatory doctrine has elements of natural law. Yet, the plurality of this regulatory doctrine appears to be similar to postmodernist views about law and regulation.

Download the text of the paper from SSRN at the link.