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On Evolution Of Fundamental Rights Provisions In Modern China Constitutions (1908-1947)

Posted on:2011-10-13Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:C P RaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116330332959186Subject:Legal history
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The fundamental rights endowed by constitution include three types -liberty, democratic rights and social rights, with which the ideologies are concerned involve liberalism, democratism and socialism. To make a study of those fundamental rights of the Chinese constitution in modern times, it is required to make it clear for the relocation of clauses for liberty, democratic rights and social rights and the three ideologies behind the three rights-liberalism, democratism and socialism, as well as their various influences on China and the different destinies in modern times. The different destinies of liberalism, democratism and socialism are directly bound up with China's destiny in modern times, that is, closely associated with the political mission for that period. In practice, we can even put it this way: it is the peculiarity of these political tasks that determines the different destinies for liberalism, democratism and socialism in China.In modern times, concepts and systems for human rights in China were borrowed from abroad.During the transition period between the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, in spite of the translation efforts made by Yan Fu which promote to some degrees the spread of the traditional outlook on human right of British liberalism, he failed to translate precisely the enthusiasm and the hidden deduction for the establishment of the"theories on liberty"by Mill-the correctness of the individual freedom in the Mill Ideology into the Chinese realm due to insufficient knowledge of the concept of liberty by Mill, the influences by the traditional epistemology on optimism of Confucianism and the mentality of"saving the nation from extinction"triggered by the risky circumstances with remarkable comparison between China and the Western countries in strength. On the contrary, Yan Fu stood in strong opposition against the theories such as the"natural rights"by Rousseau and the theories on democratism and republicism advocated by the revolutionaries, which however, are more and more received by Chinese intellectuals and are advancing towards"radicalization"gradually due to the systematization of the ideologies and thoroughness of the coping mechanism. In this way, the pursuit of the nationalism and socialism has evolved into the main stream.These concepts of"to conscience","self-restraint"and"evenness"in Chinese traditional ideology system have been indoctrinated into the concepts of the western-style liberty and rights by Liang Qichao, which bear some subtle differences from the origin of the concepts of liberty and rights. Based on the modern ideology of the Natural law and Theories on social contract, concepts for liberty and rights in the western countries in modern times, which are targeted at stressing that between individuals and the state; in detail, the individuals are endowed with the rights without any intervention from the state with individuals as the main unit. So, in this sense, laws are formulated with the purpose of guaranteeing people's freedom. And, Liang Qichao attached more importance to the laws as tools for sorting things out and pursuing group profits (or limiting personal freedom) from the concept of liberty to that of autonomy and self-restraint.The"theories on realities of the country"and the"outlook on individuals and group"by Yan Fu, and the"ideology from freedom to self-restraint"by Liang Qichao show evident propensity of"subordinating individuals to the group"in the relations between individuals and group. Actually, either Yan Fu or Liang Qichao, deeply affected by the Chinese tradition, stressed that the relations between individuals and group, people and the whole country should be interpreted in mutually active and dialectic relations.As two tycoons in the Chinese ideological circle during the transition period between the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Liang Qichao and Yan Fu were exerting tremendous effects for their ideologies and had produced profound influences on China's constitutionalism. From"within the scope of officials and the law"in the Constitutional outline made by the imperial order to"exerting limits by law"in the Provisional senate, repeated importance was attached to the legality and restrictiveness by law for the diction of the clauses of the fundamental rights, which reflected in large part their outlook on liberty and tights significantly.In terms of its origin, the clauses for the fundamental rights specified in the Constitutional outline made by the imperial order were largely shaped by Japanese style, which were influenced by German style, especially the misinterpretation on the"principle of legal reservation"by some scholars in Germany. The constitutionalism drive launched by the Qing government, on one hand, was triggered by the mentality of"Japan defeating Russia with autocratic system after setting up the constitution system", on the other hand, was targeting at"pacifying the people and maintain the national strength", alleviating revolutionaries and intensifying the central authority. Therefore, for liberty, it may be deprived arbitrarily according to the Law of karma although it is specified clearly in the Constitutional outline made by the imperial order; for the bare civil rights, they are strictly restricted, which were similar to the privilege of minorities of high-ranking officials and royal clans. So, it is extremely difficult to achieve real operation for the concepts on the fundamental rights and the system in places like China, where officials were of great arrogance regardless of people's lives and possessions.Interpretation for liberty and rights by the Chinese ideology circle in modern times would not be able to shake off the influences by"Liang Qichao and Yan Fu"concepts until the May 4th Movement of 1919 and the new culture campaign, especially because the Japanese influences had been reduced in that period and more overseas returnees began to participate in the deliberation and administration of state affairs. As professional scholars, they had more impressive cognition of the principles of the occidental liberty and rights and their latest development status, whose speeches and actions had directly ushered in a new phase for the Chinese constitutionalism in the 1920s.It was different that in the 1920s, some students majoring in Law and Politics returned to our motherland successively, who drew on their knowledge and techniques to participate enthusiastically in the deliberation and administration of state affairs, and became the main force for the constitution undertakings. During that period, the division between the south and north and the weak power of the central government had made the provinces and newspapers and public opinions out of control, which provide broad space for their constitution-related work. So, they could do the translation work for the introduction on the fresh constitutions of the western world and meanwhile committee themselves to the constitution-related work. The constitution made by them, has substantially included the content on social rights and direct democracy in the new constitution after WWâ… , and had great impact on the constitution-related work of the congress.Sure, due to the gap between the UK-US liberalism and the Continent democratism existing in the western traditions and the differences in their interest, focus even parties, considerable differences have been shown in their formulation for the theories of the constitution and drawing-up work for the clauses and provisions of the constitution. For instance, Zhang Junmai, deeply influenced by the German Weimar Constitution, paid more attention to social rights than liberty and democratic rights in terms of the fundamental rights. The charters on state affairs drawn up by him made little description on liberty. Even though he sang much praise of the provision for direct democracy in the German Weimar Constitution, he also gave little description for direct democracy in the constitution with his own efforts, compared with Li Jiannong, who received influences by the UK &US constitutions and attached great importance to the emerging social rights after WWâ… but paid more attention to substantial protection for liberty and the accomplishment of the direct democracy. Li Jiannong was in charge of the drafting work for the provincial charter of Hunan Province, who had made specifications for liberty and the direct democracy, which was second to none in constitutions in the 1920s. Furthermore, the purpose of Li Jiannong, who advocated direct democracy, was to properly protect the liberty, which showed the liberalism taste of Li-style constitution.The constitutionalism campaign in the earlier 1920s fundamentally achieved the synchronicity with the development of the global constitution, and took into consideration the situation of the government and the citizens of China. Therefore, in terms of the standard level of the text, the constitution has reached to a peak in China's constitution history.However, with the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, the Kuomintang cut the history of over ten years, superseded the Beijing central government in revolutionary mode to constitute party and form a country. Afterward, the party governance replaced the legal governance, which signifies that the Republic of China entered the party-governance system. Besides, China's constitutional undertakings are refrained by the political situation and had to undergo a new"nirvana".Sun Yatsen advocates the civil rights and people's lives, criticizes individual freedom and equality and attaches great importance to the freedom and equality of groups and the state. During the political tutelage stage, the so-called"civil rights"by Sun Yatsen includes the election, dismissal, system establishment and referendum, that is, the citizenship in the constitution theories, which had been exercised by Kuomintang. The party governance replaced the constitution governance, which can not live up to the general intellectuals' expectation although it is past. In this way, The academy circle, which represented by Hu Shi, although acquiesced in Kuomintang's political tutelage, could not help appealing strongly "formulating provisional constitution to entrench the legal foundation"on the pretext of ensuring people's rights and freedom.The appeal for working out provisional constitution came not only from the academy circle, but also from the political opponents of Kuomintang against Chiang Kai-shek, who aimed to achieve the anti-Chiang purpose; their works"Taiyuan provisional constitution"firstly regulated that"no exerting limits by law"and decisively abolished other possible opportunities for constitutions that imposed limits on liberty except constitution and the martial law, which can be rated as a revolution in the history of the concepts for Chinese liberty and constitution protection history and acknowledgement for the innateness of liberty to some extent.After the September 18th Incidence (1931), the cry for"drawing an end to the political tutelage and carrying out constitutionalism"was growing. Under this pressure, the Kuomintang began to make discussions about the issue of launching constitutionalism. From the WuWu charter to the Qicheng charter, 1947 Constitution, either for the further clarification and improvement for the human body right, or the fresh increase of living rights and or crucial establishment of guarantee"no exerting limits by law"by constitution, and evolution of provisions for the democratic rights and social rights and so on, which all have collected the wisdom and energy of all democratic party.Renowned as"father of the constitution of the Republic of China", Zhang Junmai achieved the edition of Lectures on democratic constitution of the Republic of China during his attendance for the political consultative conference in 1947, which dealt with the instructions for all the draft clauses of the Qicheng Charter as the manuscript of the conference. Zhang Junmai put it this way: the main purpose of this sketch is to reconcile the fundamental principle of the Constitution on five rights and Constitutions of the democratic countries. Zhang Junmai stressed this just because he realized that there are many contradictions between the Constitution on five rights and Constitutions of the democratic countries. Mr. Sun Yat-sen is the founding father of the Republic of China, so the gist of this constitution must be respected. And the fundamental gist of the constitution of democratic countries, including"people have the right to supervise the government", and"the government is responsible for the parliament"are commonly used by these countries and we should make independent efforts in this constitution work and can not completely use borrowed products. Therefore, Zhang Junmai had made great efforts to achieve this, who was ambitious for the constitutionalism undertakings during his early years. Not only did he participate in the Political and News Agency of the late Qing Dynasty, but he also got in charge of the drafting work of the Charter on state affairs in the 1920s. After the 1930s, he mobilized the Chinese State Social Party, Chinese Democratic Political Alliance, and Chinese Democratic Alliance to participate in the formulation work of the Qicheng Charter, Charters on the Political Consultative Conference and the 1947 Constitution in the name of the directors of the democratic parties. Compared with the constitution symbolizes the will of the emperor, the constitution focused on the interests and rights of the people, and this concept he holds becomes wise thoughts, which really pointed the direction for China's constitutionalism undertakings in the future.While the 1946 Constitution focusing on the interests and rights of the people did not deny the fact that the emergency and calamities, social order and public interests exert limits on rights, the sentence"no exerting limits by law"was highly stressed, which indicated the innateness and priority that the people's rights to the laws. Faced with the question that what the purposes of the establishment of states become, Zhang Junmai replied frankly: firstly, states are set up for subsistence of the people; secondly, the state runs to guarantee the people's freedom. This answer, however, could be considered as the best footnote for the sentence"no exerting limits by law". Zhang Junmai endured the severe critics by the public opinions and the humiliation by the"Democratic Alliance"to recede to help draft the 1947 Constitution. Although this constitution had undergone the long-term close by the"Provisional clauses on the mobilization in the event of war or turbulence", it could eventually become known and popular among the people, on which the political foundation of Taiwan Province are still built, and which can be called as the final victory of the constitution focusing on the interests and rights of the people.
Keywords/Search Tags:modern China, constitution, fundamental rights, liberty, civil rights and social rights
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