La Chine à la croisée des traditions juridiques : Regards sur les transferts de droit et le droit chinois

Les réformes juridiques chinoises entamées en 1978 suscitent plusieurs questions. Les juristes chinois, en effet, sont autorisés à recourir aux transferts de droit afin d’élaborer la législation et la réglementation nécessaires aux réformes. Dans ce contexte, comment les juristes chinois abordent-ils le recours à des traditions juridiques étrangères ? Quelle place occupent, dans les réformes juridiques chinoises, la tradition juridique romano-germanique (ou de droit civil) et celle de common law ? Quelles sont, le cas échéant, les sources de difficultés dans les rapports entre les juristes chinois et occidentaux ? Telles sont les questions traitées dans cet article.China’s legal reforms, initiated in 1978, raise several questions. They are largely based on legal transplants, or the borrowing of foreign legal traditions. Legal transplants are a source of vigorous debate between Chinese scholars : Which issues are deemed particularly sensitive, and why ? As both common law and civil law circulate in China, which tradition, if any, could be labelled dominant ? The exchanges between Chinese and Western legal scholars are becoming increasingly important, and yet, they are fraught with difficulties. Which obstacles should be overcome ? This paper seeks to answer those questions

Un code à décoder : le futur code civil chinois

Depuis la réouverture de la Chine à l’Occident en 1978, le législateur chinois fonde largement les réformes juridiques sur les transferts de droit. C’est dans ce contexte qu’il faut situer, entre autres, le dépôt d’un projet de code civil chinois le 24 décembre 2002 à l’Assemblée populaire nationale de Chine. Si un tel projet dénote sans conteste l’influence d’un code à l’étranger, il soulève plusieurs questions. Quel sens revêt, dans le contexte chinois, cette entreprise de codification ? Quels obstacles, le cas échéant, se dressent sur la route de la future codification ? Le texte qui suit retrace d’abord le rapport de la Chine avec la tradition romano-germanique au début du xxe siècle et se poursuit avec un exposé des débats entourant le processus de codification en cours.Since China’s new open-door policy to the West in 1978, the Chinese legislator has largely based law reform on legal transplants. It is within this context that one must situate, among other things, the tabling of a draft Chinese Civil Code on December 24, 2002 before the National People’s Congress of China. While such a project obviously denotes the influence of codification from abroad, it raises several questions. What is the meaning within the specific Chinese context of this undertaking to codify ? What obstacles, if such be the case, are strewed along the path leading to future codification ? In the following paper, China’s relationship with Romano-Germanic tradition is reviewed from the outset of the twentieth century and continues with a presentation of the debates surrounding the current codification process

An Inquiry into Several Difficult Problems in Enacting China\u27s Uniform Contract Law

Translator\u27s Forward: In March of 1999, China\u27s Ninth National People\u27s Congress ( NPC ) passed the Contract Law of People\u27s Republic of China. The new law is the product of nearly six years of drafting work by China\u27s Legislative Affairs Commission and contains over 400 articles, including 129 general contract provisions and 299 articles dealing with specific types of contracts. When the law takes effect on October 1, 1999, it will unify China\u27s contract law by replacing the three principal contract statutes currently in force, the Economic Contract Law, the Foreign-related Economic Contract Law, and the Technology Contract Law. The passage of this statute is thus a significant milestone in the development of China\u27s contract regime. The article translated here was originally published in the Chinese law journal Zhengfa Luntan in 1996. The author, Professor Wang Liming of the People\u27s University of China, has written numerous articles on contracts and was intimately involved in the drafting of the Contract Law as an NPC deputy. He is thus well qualified to provide insight into the drafting process. For those seeking to understand the new statute, this article provides an introduction to Chinese contract theory as well as a comprehensive analysis of the policy considerations and practical problems that influenced the drafters of the Contract Law. Some minor revisions to the original text have been made with the cooperation of Professor Wang. In addition, translator\u27s notes have been included to clarify aspects of Chinese law that may be unfamiliar to Western readers and to direct the reader to supplementary source material

Regulating Labour Relations in China : The Challenge of Adapting to the Socialist Market Economy

This paper examines the new Labour Law of the PRC, effective January 1, 1995, in the light of current and historical conditions of labour relations in China. Provisions regarding the labour contract system and dispute resolution are discussed in greater detail. Issues related to the introduction of collective bargaining and to the relationship between trade unions and the Communist Party are also examined. In their overall assessment, the authors recognize the potential significance of the Labour Law as a major step towards the legal protection of workers' rights, but point out that its effectiveness could be undermined by the preeminent policy of economic growth, by concerns about political control, and by obstacles to full implementation.Cet article analyse la nouvelle Loi de la RPC sur le travail, entrée en vigueur le 1er janvier 1995, dans le contexte historique et actuel des relations de travail en Chine. Les auteurs accordent une attention particulière aux dispositions relatives au contrat de travail et au règlement des différends. Ils examinent également les difficultés soulevées par l'introduction des conventions collectives dans les entreprises chinoises, et par les relations entre les syndicats et le Parti communiste. Tout en reconnaissant, dans leur appréciation globale de la loi, qu'elle pourrait marquer une étape importante vers la protection juridique des droits des travailleurs, ils signalent que sa portée réelle pourrait être amoindrie par la prépondérance de la politique de croissance économique, par le souci de préserver le contrôle politique et par des difficultés pratiques de mise en oeuvre

The Evolving Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics and Its Impacts on the International Legal Order

The rule of law, an abstract concept heavily debated among legal scholars and social scientists, has in the past few decades acquired a nearly universal appeal, as democracies, autocracies, and oligarchies all claim to uphold it. The Chinese government, for instance, announced in 2012 a comprehensive plan to advance law-based governance in China and has since undertaken major legal reforms. Repeatedly, Xi and the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) have pledged to build a “rule of law country.” But when the ruling elites of a one-party authoritarian state allege commitment to the rule of law, what do they really mean? How is it different from the Western concepts of the rule of law, especially the “thick” version of it, that has been closely tied to liberal democratic values? What are the key features of the “rule of law with Chinese characteristics”? And how will it impact the international legal order? Applying a transnational legal ordering framework, this Article attempts some answers. It proceeds in two sections. Section One traces the development of the Chinese legal system and the evolving rule of law debates in China. Unlike prior research on this topic, which has generally treated the sovereign state as the unit of analysis, this section highlights the power dynamics within the Chinese ruling elites and the influence of the international legal community as well as the global rule of law discourse. Section Two reverses the inquiry and explores how China might impact the international legal order. It contends that varying coalitions of Chinese actors populate the interfaces between China and international law across different issue areas and that China’s impacts on the international legal order vary as well. Both sections will also discuss how the ideological remnants have produced three common, entrenched perceptions of law and legal institutions: legal instrumentalism, economic determinism, and linearity of institutional changes, and how these perceptions have modified China’s interactions with international law

Resolving Corporate Insolvencies in China: the Gap Between Law and Reality

This article examines how corporate insolvencies in China, the second largest economy, are handled under the current legislation, the China Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of 2006. Relying on the fresh empirical data arising from the first ten years on the use of China’s three insolvency procedures, reorganization, composition and liquidation, this article reveals the huge gap between the law in the books and the law in action, arguing that the implementation of this law in China perhaps has not achieved the legislative objectives. The constitutional and institutional weaknesses affecting the application of this law are analyze

Globalization and Economic Regulation in China: Selective Adaptation of Globalized Norms and Practices

This Article will examine changing norms and practices of economic regulation in China by reference to the dynamic of selective adaptation of norms of globalization