Comparative Law
March 16 2006
Asian Legal Systems: China and Japan
Chinese religions
• Buddhism• Taoism
Syllabus Update
• Next Tuesday: Hindu Legal System assignment
• Next Thursday: Chthonic Law assignment
• Choose classes for presentations
Peoples Republic of China
• 1949
• Nationalize industry, land redistribuion
• 1951 uprising in Tibet (1959 failed coup)
• 1957 “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom”
• 1958 Great Leap Forward – a disaster
Cultural Revolution
• 1966 reaches Beijing university
• Red Guards
• Gang of Four (Jiang Qing)
• 1976 Mao dies, arrest of Gang of Four
Some reforms
• Largely economic
• Political reforms are slower to come
• 1989 Tiannamen Square protests end in carnage
Deng Xiaoping
• In power from late 1970s to 1993 when Jiang Zemin took control
Modern leader
• Jiang stepped down officially in 2002 (but remains powerful behind the scenes)
• Power passed to next generation of technocrats led by Hu Jintao
Legal Reform Post 1979
• Promulgation of hundreds of laws and regulations, mainly economic
• Legal reform became a government priority in the 1990s
Continuing Importance of Mediation
• Mediation committees resolve around 90% of China’s civil disputes and some minor criminal cases at no cost to the parties.
• There are over 800,000 such committees in rural and urban areas
Chinese Court System
• 4 level court system
• Supreme People’s Court
• Higher People’s Courts
• Intermediate People’s Courts
• Basic People’s Courts
• Many court proceedings are televised
Chinese Legal Professionals
• State legal workers who function under supervision of Ministry of Justice
• Importance of and demand for legal services is on the incrase – a move towards lawyers engaging in private practice in their own offices (collectives)
Chinese Law Schools
• 3 year law courses
• Curriculum has expanded recently
• Semi-annutal bar examination is open to individuals who have completed university or correspondence law courses and have completed two years of judicial work. Candidates can then apply for a qualification certificate as a lawyer.
Human Rights
• China has acknowledged in principle the importance of protection of human rights
• The government signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and ratified it in 2001
• But human rights abuses are still a significant issue in China, especially regarding freedom of religion, assembly, speech, one child policy, arbitrary arrest and detention
Japanese Legal System
• Chinese influence
Japanese History
• Influence of China
• Shogans hold actua power from 710 to 1867
• Contact with the West 1542 – followed by 200 year period of isolation until Convention of Kanagawa in 1854
Effect of Western Contact
Effect of Western Contact
• End of shogunate – restoration of emperor (Meiji restoration of 1868)
• Last unequal treaty removed in 1898
• Wars with China and Russia (over Korea)
• World War I – fights on the side of the Allies
• 1920s progress toward democratic system
1930s : Japanese Aggression
• 1931 Invasion of Manchuria – puppet state of Manchukuo
• 1933 resigns from League of Nations
• 1937 Invasion of China
World War II
• Attack on Pearl Harbor
• Nearly 4 years of war, loss of 3 millino f Japanese lives
• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Surrender September 2 1945
• Japan loses all overseas possession