Universität Wien

030521 KU History of Chinese Law and Legal Thought (2016W)

2.00 ECTS (1.00 SWS), SPL 3 - Rechtswissenschaften
Continuous assessment of course work

registration is also possible via email (thomas.s.eder@univie.ac.at) or in the first lesson

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Friday 02.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SEM64 Schottenbastei 10-16, Juridicum 6.OG
  • Friday 16.12. 17:00 - 20:00 Seminarraum SEM64 Schottenbastei 10-16, Juridicum 6.OG
  • Friday 13.01. 17:00 - 20:00 Seminarraum SEM63 Schottenbastei 10-16, Juridicum 6.OG
  • Friday 20.01. 17:00 - 20:00 Seminarraum SEM64 Schottenbastei 10-16, Juridicum 6.OG

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

For students to be able to grasp Chinese legal history they have to first understand the struggle at the heart of Chinese legal thought, that of Legalism against Confucianism. Those two schools will first be explored, and the foundation established on which Chinese legal development during Imperial times built. Thereafter, the dichotomy resulting from the uneasy symbiosis of the two underlying philosophies will be explained: the codes and courts behind the criminal law system on the one hand, and custom and conciliation dominating matters of civil law on the other. After laying out the constitutionalization of China in late-Imperial and Republican times, students are then to understand the stages of importing Western legal norms from different systems: (mainly
German) civil law in the Republican era, Soviet law in the early Communist era, and civil and common law in the ongoing reform era.
Emphasis is placed on critically exploring the hybrid nature of the Chinese legal system, and the course complemented with an analysis of China’s complicated and evolving relationship with international law.
Participants should become more at ease with engaging another legal system’s history and develop stronger critical reasoning skills.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of the key elements of Chinese legal thought and discuss stages of Chinese legal history in light of this understanding through in-class comments, a short presentation and a written examination.
• Apply the principles of Chinese legal thought and legal development to more recent reforms and Chinese positions on matters of international law, evaluate and critique them.

Assessment and permitted materials

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Students will be graded according to a 100-point system. A written exam at the end of the semester will provide the opportunity to attain 60 points, a short oral presentation (ten minutes) during the course will account for 20 points, and in-class participation for another 20 points.
A list of topics for the presentations, as well as all readings for this course will be provided. Attendance is mandatory, but students may miss class two times.

Examination topics

Prüfungsstoff / Literatur (all readings will be provided):

• ‘A Tradition of Persuasion’ and ‘Confucian Ways’ in Patrick H. Glenn,
Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 320-338;
• ‘Li (Appropriate Behaviour) and Fa (Standards and Penal Law)’ in Karyn
L. Lai, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 41-43;
• Derk Bodde, ‘Basic Concepts of Chinese Law: The Genesis and Evolution
of Legal Thought in Traditional China’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, no. 5, 1963, pp. 375-398;
• ‘Society, Morality and Law in Imperial China’, in Daniel C. K. Chow,
The Legal System of the People’s Republic of China in a Nutshell, New York, West Academic Publishing, 2009, pp. 40-49 (entire chapter: pp.
40-53).
• ‘The Han Code’, ‘The Tang Code and its Setting’, and ‘Codification
Reaches Maturity: The Ming and Qing Dynasties’ in John W. Head & Wang Yanping. Law codes in dynastic China: a synopsis of Chinese legal history in the thirty centuries from Zhou to Qing. Durham, N.C.:
Carolina Academic Press, 2004, pp. 91-104, 115-136, and 175-226.
• Optional Reading:
‘The Penal System’ and ‘The Judiciary’ in Derek Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China. Exemplified by 190 Ch’ing Dynasty Cases (Translated from the Hsing-an hui-lan), Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1967, pp. 76-112, 113-143.
• ‘Defining Categories: Disputes and Lawsuits in North China Villages
Before the Communist Revolution’ and ‘Informal Justice: Mediation in North China Villages Before the Communist Revolution’ in Huang, Philip C. Civil Justice in China: Representation and Practice in the Qing.
Law, Society, and Culture in China Series. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998, pp. 21-50, 51-75.
• ‘Society, Morality and Law in Imperial China’, in Daniel C. K. Chow,
The Legal System of the People’s Republic of China in a Nutshell, New York, West Academic Publishing, 2009, pp. 49-53 (40-53).
• Optional Reading:
Hansen, Valerie. Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400. Princeton, NJ: Yale University Press, 1995.
• ‘Change and the Eternal Empire’ in Patrick H. Glenn, Legal Traditions
of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 339-341.
• Xiaohong Xiao-Planes, ‘Of Constitutions and Constitutionalism: Trying
to Build a New Political Order in China, 19081949’ in Stéphanie Balme and Michael W. Dowdle (eds.), Building constitutionalism in China, New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 37-57.
• ‘Civil Law in the Late Qing and the Early Republic: the Revised Qing
Code’ and ‘The Guomindang Civil Code of 1929-1930’ in Huang, Philip C.
Code, custom and legal practice in China: The Qing and the Republic compared. Law, Society, and Culture in China Series. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001, pp. 15-30, 49-70.
• ‘Early Chinese Law The Confucian Tradition and the Adoption of
German Civil Law’ in Percy R. Luney Jr., Traditions and Foreign
Influences: Systems of Law in China and Japan, 52 Law and Contemporary Problems (Spring 1989, pp. 129-150), pp.130-132.
• ‘Law in Modern China, 1912-1978’ in Daniel C. K. Chow, The Legal
System of the People’s Republic of China in a Nutshell, New York, West Academic Publishing, 2009, pp. 53-54 (53-66).
• ‘The Soviet Influence’ and ‘The New Chinese Civil Law’ in Percy R.
Luney Jr., Traditions and Foreign Influences: Systems of Law in China and Japan, 52 Law and Contemporary Problems (Spring 1989, pp. 129-150), pp. 132-142.
• ‘Law under Mao, II: Law as Administration’ and ‘Foundation: Economic
Reform and a New Role for Law’ in Stanley B. Lubman, Bird in A Cage:
Legal Reform in China After Mao, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2000, pp. 71-101, 102-137.

Reading list


Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 31.03.2022 00:15