The New Chinese Civil Code and Its Contribution to Sustainable Development

Abstract

The first civil code of the People’s Republic of China in the history was adopted by the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing on 28 May 2020 and will enter into effect on 1 January 2021. The new civil code puts much more emphasis on the sustainable development and protection of the environment and because of that, the Chinese private law has begun to respond to ecological problems as well. The aim of this article is to show the progress and prospects of implementing Sustainable Development clauses to the civil law system of the People’s Republic of China and to show how these solutions can become an inspiration for the development of Polish law in this matter. Legal comparative and normative analyses are methods which were used in this academic article to discuss and explain this problem.

Keywords: civil law, China, sustainable development, Chinese law, civil code