HIST5523 Special Topics in Public History (Legal Studies): Narratives on China’s Legal Past

Content

This course is about narratives on Chinese legal tradition and its modern transformation. It is neither a comprehensive, chronological and descriptive account of Chinese legal history nor a study of today’s Chinese law. Rather, the course aims at achieving the prescribed learning outcomes through guided in-depth reading as well as deliberation that provides the teacher and students with opportunities to think together about and discuss certain narratives of China’s legal past. It is expected that the class will move beyond the traditional “transmission” mode of teaching and learning and that all members of the class will play an active role in exploring various aspects of legal knowledge and sharing their interpretations and opinions with the class.

 

Learning Outcomes

• Enhanced critical understanding of the complexity of China’s legal past
• Appreciation of fundamental legal theories and concepts essential to a better understanding of law in China’s past and present
• Improved analytical thinking and communication skills concerning matters of law in China
• Heightened self-reflection that fosters a deeper understanding of the student’s own emotions, motivations, and thought processes regarding justice and the rule of law

1. Introduction
2. Song Legal Justice
3. Ming-Qing land property
4. Workshop on justice of property rights; Law and market economy, 1000-1800
5. Extraterritoriality and modernization of Chinese law
6. Modernizing Chinese law in the first half of the 20^th century (1)
7. Modernizing Chinese law in the first half of the 20^th century (2)
8. Arbitration in dispute resolution
9. Narratives of Chinese company law
10. Workshop on law and women; Women in Chinese family law
11. GMD constitutional law and constitutional rights in comparative perspective
12. Chinese legal reforms in historical perspective
13. Course wrap-up

4 in-class quizzes (weeks 4, 6, 8, 11)（40% in total）: on the required readings of the previous classes since the last quiz

Written Report (5,000 words)（40%）: a 5,000-word review article (approx. 20 double-spaced pages) in English on two or more readings individually assigned by the lecturer; must follow the paper format provided. A 500-word progress report due March 8, on which the lecturer or teaching assistant will discuss during an individually arranged one-to-one conference. A “Progressive Achievement” assessment is used by largely following the two steps of (a) conducting an individual conference where the student is given feedback on their progress report, and (b) having the student address the issues raised during the conference as they complete the report. The focus is on the student’s “growth mindset” that enables them to react to academic challenges by allocating more effort, experimenting with new approaches, and seeking feedback. The student’s outstanding performance (A/A-) is recognized through a high degree of originality expressed in any of the following elements; the overarching framework, comparative approach, observations, critiques, and the like. Final paper submission due April 19 (the last class).

Class participation and a self-reflective essay (250 words)（20%）: class participation is assessed holistically based on attendance, class preparedness, and contribution to class discussions and group activities, etc. A required 250-word self-reflective essay on insights gained through studying China’s legal past in the course; due April 22.

 

**NOTE** The use of online tools and AI as a learning aid is allowed in the course. However, such use is strictly prohibited in doing all course assignments (e.g., using ChatGPT to generate text). Students committing any act of academic dishonesty will be subject to academic disciplinary actions in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations of the University.

refer to the course outline

A. Required Readings

1. Introduction to the course and “narrative”

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard U Press, 1998. Ch. 8 (The Paradox of Growth without Development – Limitations of the Law), pp. 183-186. Or use either of the editions available at CUHK library.

→ 2006 edition online access CUHK Library; hardcopies at Law Library and University Library.

Chen, Albert H.Y. An Introduction to the Legal System of the People’s Republic of China. 5^rd ed. Hong Kong: LexisNexis, 2019. Ch. 2 (The Legal History of Traditional China).

→ UL Reserved

 

2. Song Legal Justice

Xu, Xiaoqun. Heaven Has Eyes: Law and Justice in Chinese History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Ch. 2 (From the Imperial Capital to the Magistrate’s Court: Judicial Practices in Imperial China).

→ Online access CUHK Library

蘇基朗、蘇壽富美：《有法無天：從加藤弘之及霍姆斯到吳經熊的叢林憲法觀》。香港：香港中文大學出版社，2023。第14章：〈法律正義與天道：神宗朝阿云案〉。

→ Blackboard course material

 

3. Ming-Qing land property

Xu, Xiaoqun. Heaven Has Eyes. Ch. 3 (The Emperor, the Family, and the Land: Law and Order in Imperial China).

Zhang, Taisu. The Laws and Economics of Confucianism: Kinship and Property in Preindustrial China and England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Ch. 1 (Dian Sales in Qing and Republican China).

→ Online access CUHK Library

Zhang, Taisu. The Laws and Economics of Confucianism. Ch. 3 (Kinship, Social Hierarchy, and Institutional Divergence – Theories).

Zhang, Taisu. The Laws and Economics of Confucianism. Ch. 4 (Kinship, Social Hierarchy, and Institutional Divergence – Empirics).

Faure, David. Review of Zhongguo chuantong diquan zhidu jiqi bianqian 中國傳統地權制度及其變遷by Long Denggao 龍登高. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue, 2018; Chuantong Zhongguo diquan jiegou jiqi yanbian 傳統中國地權結構及其演變by Cao Shuji 曹樹基 and Liu Shigu 劉詩古. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong daxue, 2014; The Laws and Economics of Confucianism: Kinship and Property in Preindustrial China and England, by Taisu Zhang. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Journal of Chinese History, 2020, vol. 4 (1), pp. 198-208.

→ Online access CUHK Library

 

4. Workshop on justice of property rights; Law and market economy, 1000-1800

So, Billy K. L. and Sufumi So. “Law and the Market Economy.” In Ma Debin and Richard von Glenn eds., Cambridge Economic History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 419-447.

→ Online access CUHK Library

 

5. Extraterritoriality and modernization of Chinese law

Li Chen, Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes: Sovereignty, Justice and Transcultural Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Ch. 3 (Chinese Law in the Formation of European Modernity)

→ Online access CUHK Library

Li Chen, Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes. Ch. 4 (Sentimental Imperialism and the Global Spectacle of Chinese Punishments)

Li Chen, Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes. Ch. 5. (Law and Empire in the Making of the First Opium War)

Kayaoglu, Turan. Legal Imperialism: Sovereignty and Extraterritoriality in Japan, the Ottoman Empire, and China. Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2010. Ch. 5 (China’s struggle for sovereignty).

→ Online access CUHK Library

 

6. Modernizing Chinese law in the first half of the 20th century (1)

Xu, Xiaoqun. Heaven Has Eyes. Ch. 4 (The Best of the Chinese and of the Western: Legal-Judicial Reform in the Late Qing, 1901–1911).

Xu, Xiaoqun. Heaven Has Eyes. Ch. 5 (The Rule of Law, Judicial Independence, and Due Process: Ideals and Realities in the Republican Era, 1912–1949).

 

7. Modernizing Chinese law in the first half of the 20th century (2)

Xu, Xiaoqun. Heaven Has Eyes. Ch. 6 (Bandits, Collaborators, and Wives and Concubines: Criminal and Civil Justice in the Republican Era, 1912–1949).

Chen, Albert H.Y. An Introduction to the Legal System of the People’s Republic of China. Ch. 3 (The Legal History of Modern China).

 

8. Arbitration in dispute resolution

蘇基朗、蘇壽富美：《近代企業的商道、商術與商法：東京金港堂與上海商務印書館雜識（1875-1930）》。香港：香港中文大學出版社，2024，即將出版。第13章：〈近代商事仲裁的移植：以東京與上海書業為中心〉。

→ Blackboard course material

Fan, Kun. “Glocalization of Arbitration: Transnational Standards Struggling with Local Norms Through the Lens of Arbitration Transplantation in China.” Harvard Negotiation Law Review 18 (2013), pp. 175-219.

→ HeinOnline full text CUHK library

 

9. Narratives of Chinese company law

Kirby, William. “China Unincorporated: Company Law and Business Enterprises in Twentieth-Century China.” Journal of Asian studies 54.1 (1995), pp. 43-63.

→ Online access CUHK Library

So, Billy K. L. and Albert S. Lee. “Legalization of Chinese Corporation, 1904-1929: Innovation and Continuity in Rules and Legislation.” In B.K.L. So and Ramon H. Myers eds., Treaty Port Economy in Modern China: Empirical Studies of Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Berkeley: Institution of East Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 2011. Ch. 9.

→ Blackboard course material

 

10. Workshop on law and women; Women in Chinese family law

Huang, Philip. “Women’s Choices Under Qing Law: Marriage and Illicit Sex.” In his Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China: The Qing and the Republic Compared. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. Ch. 9.

→ Online access CUHK Library

Huang, Philip. “Women’s Choices Under Guomindang Law: Marriage, Divorce, and Adultery.” In his Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China. Ch. 10.

→ Online access CUHK Library

Huang, Philip. “Divorce Law Practices and the Origins, Myths, and Realities of Judicial “Mediation” in China.” Modern China 31. 2, (2005), pp. 151-203.

→ Online access CUHK Library

 

11. GMD constitutional law and constitutional rights in comparative perspective

蘇基朗、蘇壽富美：《有法無天》。第2-6章。

→ Blackboard course material

 

12. Chinese legal reforms in historical perspective

So, Billy K. L. “Chinese Legal Reforms in Historical and Comparative Perspective: The Legal Reforms of the 1990s and the 1070s.” Hong Kong Law Journal 40.1 (2010), pp. 175-198.

→ HeinOnline full text CUHK library

蘇基朗、蘇壽富美：《有法無天》。香港：香港中文大學出版社，2023。第15章：〈法律改革與新政治秩序：北宋的兩次法律改革〉。

→ Blackboard course material

 

13. Course wrap-up

Xu, Xiaoqun. Heaven Has Eyes. Conclusion.

蘇基朗：〈現代法學詮釋中的‘中華法系’－以產權與合約為中心〉，《法學》，2006年第12期，頁62-68。

→ Online access CUHK Library

蘇基朗、蘇壽富美：《有法無天》。餘緒。

→ Blackboard course material

 

B. Recommended Readings

Alford, William. “A Second Great Wall? China’s Post-Cultural Revolution Project of Legal Construction.” Cultural Dynamics 11 (2003), pp. 193-213.

Alford, William. “Of Arsenic and Old Laws: Looking Anew at Criminal Justice in Late Imperial China.” California Law Review 72.6 (1984), pp. 1180-1256.

Alford, William. “The More Law, the More…? Measuring legal Reform in the People’s Republic of China.” In Nicholas C. Hope, Dennis Tao Yang and Mu Yang Li, eds. How Far Across the River? Chinese Policy Reform at the Millennium. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. pp. 122-149.

Alford, William. To Steal a Book is an Elegant Offense: Intellectual Property Law in Chinese Civilization. Stanford: Stanford U Press, 1995.

Bernhardt, Kathryn and Philip Huang eds., Civil Law in Qing and Republican China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

Bodde, Derk and Clarence Morris eds., Law in Imperial China: Exemplified by 190 Ch’ing Dynasty Cases (Translated from Hsing-AN-HUI-LAN) with Historical, Social, and Juridical Commentaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Cassel, Par. Grounds of Judgment: Extraterritoriality and Imperial Power in 19th-century China and Japan. New York: Oxford U Press, 2012.

Ch’ü T’ung-tsu. Law and Society in Traditional China. Paris: Mouton, 1961.

Chiu Peng-sheng, “The Discourse on Insolvency and Negligence in Eighteenth-Century China.” In Robert E. Hegel and Katherine Carlitz, eds. Writing and Law in Late Imperial China: Crime, Conflict, and Judgment. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2007. pp. 125-142.

Clarke, Donald, Peter Murrell, and Susan Whiting. “The Role of Law in China’s Economic Development.” In Loren Brandt and Thomas Rawski eds., China’s Great Economic Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Ch. 11.

Conner, Alison. “Confucianism and Due Process.” In de Bary, Wm. Theodore and Tu Weiming eds. Confucianism and Human Rights. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Ch. 10.

Goetzmann, William and Elisabeth Köll. “The History of Corporate Ownership in China: State Patronage, Company Legislation, and the Issue of Control.” In Randall Morck ed. A History of Corporate Governance Around the World. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Ch. 2.

Hansen, Valerie. Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contract, 600-1400. New Haven: Yale U Press, 1995.

Hsu Tao-lin. “Crime and Cosmic Order.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 30 (1970), pp. 111-125.

Jiang, Yonglin, and Wu Yanhong. “Satisfying Both Sentiment and Law: Fairness-Centered Judicial Reasoning as Seen in late Ming Casebooks.” In Charlotte Furth, Judith T. Zeitlin and Hsiung Ping-chen, eds., Thinking with Cases: Specialist Knowing in Chinese cultural History. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. pp. 31-65.

Kuhn, Philip A. Soulstealers: The Chinese sorcery scare of 1768. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

MacCormack, Geffrey. “Assistance in Conflict Resolution: Imperial China.” Transactions of the Jean Bodin Society for Comparative Institutional History 63, De Boeck Université, 1996, pp. 109-153.

McConville, Mike. “Comparative Empirical Co-ordinates and the Dynamics of Criminal Justice in China and the West.” In Mike McConville and Eva Pils eds., Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013. Ch. 2.

McKnight, Brian. Law and Order in Sung China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1956. Vol. 2, “Human Law and the Laws of Nature in China and the West.” pp. 518-83.

Peerenboom, Randall, ed. Judicial Independence in China: Lessons for Global Rule of Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Peerenboom, Randall. China’s Long March Toward Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Scogin, Hugh. “Civil ‘Law’ in Traditional China: History and Theory.” In Kathryn Bernhardt and Philip Huang eds, Civil Law in Qing and Republican China. Stanford: Stanford U Press, 1994. pp. 13-41.

So, Billy K. L. “Modern China’s Treaty-port Economy in Institutional Perspective: An Introductory Essay.” In Billy K. L. So and Ramon H. Myers eds., Treaty-port Economy in Modern China: Empirical Studies of Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, 2011. pp. 1-32.

So, Billy K. L. “Traditional Chinese Law in Action: Criminal Liability in Three Homicide Cases in Sung China (A.D. 960-1276).” Paper presented at the Fourth Conference of Asian Jurisprudence: The Rule of Law in East Asia: Formation and Development, HKU, 17-18 January 2002.

So, Billy K. L. Prosperity, Region, and Institutions in Maritime China: The South Fukien Pattern, 946-1368. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2000.

Unger, Roberto Mangabeira. Law in Modern Society: Toward a Criticism of Social Theory. New York: Free Press, 1976.

Wang, Dong. China’s Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.

Xi, Chao. “Transforming Chinese Enterprises: Ideology, Efficiency and Instrumentalism in the Process of Reform.” In John Gillespie and Pip Nicholson, eds., Asian Socialism and Legal Change: The Dynamics of Vietnamese Renewal and Chinese Reform. Canberra: ANU Press & Asia Pacific Press, 2005. pp. 91-114.

Zelin, Madeleine. “A Critique of Rights of Property in Prewar China.” In Madeleine Zelin, J. Ocko and R Cardella, eds., Contract and Property in Early Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. pp. 17-36.

Zelin, Madeleine, Jonathan Ocko and Robert Cardella, eds. Contract and Property in Early Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

尤陳俊。《聚訟紛紜 : 清代的「健訟之風」話語及其表達性現實》。 北京: 北京大學出版社，2022。

方流芳：〈試解薛福成和柯比的中國公司之迷〉，載梁治平編：《法治在中國：制度、話語與實踐》。北京：中國政法大學出版社，2002。頁280-318。

王新宇：《民國時期婚姻法近代化研究》。北京：中國法制出版社，2006。

安守廉 (William Alford), 〈不可思議的西方？ 昂格爾運用與誤用中國歷史的含義〉，收高道蘊、高鴻鈞、賀衛方編：《美國學者論中國法律傳統》。北京：清華大學出版社，2004增訂版。頁3-51。

寺田浩明：〈權利與冤抑〉，載滋賀秀三等：《明清時期的民事審判與民間契約》。北京：法律出版社，1998。頁191－265。

朱景文：《中國法律發展報告 : 數據庫和指標體系》，北京：中國人民大學，2007。

李貴連：《沈家本傳》北京：法律出版社，2000。

居正著，范忠信等編：《為什麼要重建中國法系—居正法政文選》。北京：中國政法大學出版社，2009。

屈超立：〈論宋代法律在中華法系中的地位〉，收張中秋編《中華法系國際學術研討會文集》。北京：中國政法大學出版社，2007。頁65-71。

邱澎生：《明清法律與社會變遷》。北京：法律出版社，2019。

邱澎生：《當法律遇上經濟: 明清中國的商業法律》。台北：五南圖書出版公司，2008。

邱澎生：《當經濟遇上法律：明清中國的市場演化》。台北：聯經出版公司，2018。

柳立言：〈一條律文各自解讀—宋代「爭鶉案」的爭議〉，《中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊》，第73本第1分，2002，頁119-164。

范忠信：《中國法律傳統的基本精神》。濟南：山東人民出版社，2001。

范金明：《明清商事糾紛與商業訴訟》。南京：南京大學出版社，2007。

徐忠明：〈楊乃武寃案平反的背後：經濟、文化、社會資本的考察〉，載氏著：《案例、故事與明清時期的司法文化》。北京：法律出版社，2006。頁83-107。

高道蘊、 高鴻鈞、賀衛方編：《西方學者論中國法律傳統》，北京：清華大學出版社，2004。

張忠民：《艱難的變遷：近代中國公司法制度研究》。上海：上海社科院出版社，2002。

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眭鴻明：《清末民初民商事習慣調查之研究》。北京：法律出版社，2005。

滋賀秀三等：《明清時期的民事審判與民間契約》。北京：法律出版社，1998。

滋賀秀三著，張建國、李力譯：《中國家族法原理》。北京：法律出版社，2002。

黃宗智：《民事審判與民間調解：清代的表達與實踐》。北京：中國社會科學出版社，1998。

黃宗智：《法典、習俗與司法實踐：清代與民國的比較》。上海：上海書店出版社，2007。

黃源盛：《民初法律變遷與裁判》。台北：國立政治大學出版社，2000。

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蘇基朗： 〈理學、法律與婦女財產權—關於黃幹的一件判詞〉，收韓延龍編《法律史研究》3。北京：法律出版社，2001。頁479-492。

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https://www.hkihss.hku.hk/en/people/billy-k-l-so/

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