Re-Conceptualising Private Law: the Struggle for Civil Codification in China

Abstract

China is making yet another attempt at civil codification, a process that will in reality re-conceptualise private law and lay down the fundamental principles that will regulate civil and commercial relationships between and among individuals and economic entities. This paper will first provide a brief review of the legislative efforts at civil codification in the PRC and, through this review, explain the various ideological and theoretical battles that raged during these attempts at civil codification. It will then outline challenges facing jurists, policy and law-makers involved in this latest attempt at codification. It is the view of the author that the final outcome of the continuing ideological and theoretical battles will not only shape the form of the present civil codification (and its resultant civil code) but, much more importantly, define the nature of private law in China.

Keywords: Civil Code, Civil Codification, Chinese Law