Legal Reforms in China

Even though China has no rule of law tradition, it has been making rapid progress – since 1978 when the policy of opening-up was adopted – in setting up a legal system that is supportive of a market economy. This paper contains a comprehensive overview of legal reforms in China. Section 2 summarizes the reforms over the last 20 years and describes the prospects for further reform. Section 3 describes constitutional reforms since 1949, including the important reform of March 1999 which has written into the Constitution the principle of the rule of law. This section also describes reforms in various areas of public law, including criminal law and criminal procedure; administrative law; regulatory powers of the government; and describes the changing role of the People’s Congress. Section 4—which is the lengthiest—describes reforms in private law. Successively, the paper reviews corporate legislation, securities, competition, consumer protection, labor law, intellectual property, finance and guarantees. Section 5 covers social security as well as environmental protection. Section 6 discusses legal reforms that affect rural areas. Section 7 covers judicial reform issues, including combating corruption; open trials; the lay assessor system; township courts; dispute resolution issues; and the enforcement ofjudgements. Finally, section 8 concludes by discussing how to promote legality in China and the role of lawyers.