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