Grundriss der Geschichte und Modernisierung des chinesischen Rechts

In view of the constantly growing influence of China in the international community an insight into the historical development of Chinese law might be of interest not only for students of East Asia and specialists of comparative legal history, but also for the more general reader. What are the main characteristics of China’s 3000 years of premodern legal history? How is this legal tradition, which touched the threshold of the 20th century related to the needs of a modern legal system? The first two chapters summarize the contents of the traditional legal system including the legislative history during the imperial period, chapters 3 and 4 deal with the efforts of law modernization during the 20th century until the present. Three annexed studies supplement the discussion by a literary description of traditional penal law, a comparison between legal tradition in Germany and China, and considerations by a Chinese comparatist on the topic whether the Chinese legal tradition might be a source for establishing modern rule of law.