Towards a Chinese Civil Code: Comparative and Historical Perspectives

Currently, China is drafting its new Civil Code. Against this background, the Chinese legal community has shown a growing interest in various legal and legislative ideas from around the world. Within this context, the present book aims at providing the necessary historical and comparative legal perspectives. It concentrates on substantive private law and civil procedure, both in China and in other jurisdictions. These perspectives are of considerable importance for the present codification work. Additionally, the book is dedicated to commemorating the centennial of the first Western-influenced and civil law-oriented Civil Code of China, the Da Qing Min Lü Cao An of 1911.

The following topics are addressed: property law, contract law, tort law and civil procedure. The book also contains contributions on codification experiences in Europe and on the concept of codification in general. The topics are discussed by leading Chinese and international scholars. Most of the Chinese contributors have taken part in preparing the Chinese Draft Civil Code.

The book is the outcome of a conference organized by the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (RCCL), School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, in October 2010.

Lei Chen, LLD (2008), is Assistant Professor at the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong. He has published extensively on Chinese Private Law and Comparative Law, including his recently published "The Making of Chinese Condominium Law" (Intersentia, 2010).

C.H. (Remco) van Rhee, Ph.D. (1997), Maastricht University, Faculty of Law, is Professor of European Legal History and Comparative Civil Procedure. He has published extensively on European Legal History and Comparative Civil Procedure, and is general editor and main author of the best-selling European Traditions in Civil Procedure (Intersentia, 2005).