Of Old and New Codes: Chinese Law in the Mirror of Western Laws

Abstract

Notwithstanding the fact that the word code is associated with a broad spectrum of meanings, when Chinese and European law met in the middle of nineteenth century, this word was marked by absolute historical typicality: it designated the Civil code, which represented an epoch-making watershed in western legal history and was identified as a symbol for legal modernity. This code became soon an illustrious reference model for the Chinese legal modernization process. In front of it the Qing code represented an old law, expression of a feeble legal tradition, that was inexorably destined to disappear. However, substituting the old with the new in the field of law is not simply a political choice and a technical endeavour. This paper explores some paths of this process from a comparative law perspective.