Chinese Law: Tradition and Modernization

Catalog description

This seminar offers an examination of how tradition and embedded cultural values have influenced the legal modernization in contemporary China. The focus of the seminar will be on the issues and dilemmas confronting China's ideal of empowering its state and people through the use of law. Topics will include the rule of law vs. the rule of Li (rituals and gifts), individual rights vs. collective interests, preference of informal justice over formal justice, cultivation of citizenship, growth of civil society, and the role of law in promoting the rights and interests of women, ethnic minority groups and disabled persons, and facilitating economic development. Interdisciplinary approaches will be employed in this seminar to facilitate understanding of Chinese legal tradition and its modern transformations, which include the efforts since the late 19th century of borrowing Western law and institutions and implementing current law reforms in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Readings are drawn from English translations of Chinese codes, cases and literary works, and academic writings by Western and Chinese scholars.