Jurisprudent Shift in China: A Functional Interpretation

In light of the limitation of normative narratives of Chinese jurisprudence, this article proposes a functional interpretation of how the law evolved in China and how the jurisprudence was formalized to cope with major social challenges in the society. Through an examination on historiographical findings and official documentation, the article outlines the extent to which legal norms and institutions succeed in accommodating dominant social consciousness in a particular context, and reveals the interplay between norms and mechanisms respectively in ancient China (around 400 B.C. to the mid-19th century) and modern China (the late 19th century to the 20th century) respectively. The article concludes that in China’s transformational context where people are on a frequent mobility and tend to be assertive toward the government, the jurisprudent shift is likely to be formulated in favor of procedural fairness, insensitive to kinship relations and political beliefs. The shift so too allows one to predict the governant reactions to individual claims.