Minority Customary Law Study

In the modern Chinese construction process of rule of law, we should introduce and refer to foreign rule of law theory in addition to iheir successful experiences. Furthermore, we should understand our general situations and summarize our own native law resourses, in other words, we ought to obtain nutrition from our own history and reality for the purpose of laying the foundation of development. Customary law, among all the law resourses, is undoubtedly an unavoidable facet.Customary law is the earliest law with the longest history. However, it exercises profound influence on reality. By reflecting the way thait mankind thinks about Nature and the world as well as accumulating the fruits of people's wisdom, customary law stays as the foundation and source of state statutes.As one important part of Chinese law system, customary law of ethnic minority, which still affects ethnic minority areas greatly at the present age, has the most abundant contents and exercises the greatest influence in Chinese law system, Various ethnic minority, along with long period of living and production practices, develop their own national customary laws by which to protect the whole national interests, keep national internal order and to improve the peace and development of national areas.Customary law of ethnic minority deals with extremely large fields; in other words, it involves every aspect and every field of social life. Early customary law of ethnic minority, whose enactment, modification and abolishment generally require participation and consensus of all the social members, obviously reflects primitive democratic atmosphere. However, with the process of development and evolution, customary law of ethnic minority has some new colors, that is, class segmentation, hierarchy and privilege.In our country, the academic field of law science pays some attention to customary law of ethnic minority, and has made some progress. However, studies of the problems are still very weak on the whole. The article, by means of positive description'and analysis, try to make a comprehensive study on some questions about the customary law of ethnic minority, for example, its creation and development, main contents, characteristics, functions, realistic forms. By answering these questions, I expect to master the attributes and trends, of development relating to customary law of ethnic minority.The article consists of introduction and 6 chapters.In the introduction, I mainly analyze the concept of customary law, and define the customary law of ethnic minority. On the basis of these definitions, I discuss and show the significance of customary law of ethnic minority.Chapter 1 The creation and development of Chinese customary law of ethnic minority. The creation and development of Chinese customary law of ethnic minority comply with the general rules of law's creation and development, while at the same time it has some special characteristics. In this chapter, 1 mainly argue creation process of customary law of ethnic minority, and trace itsdevelopment and evolution. Then I will argue the relation between customary law of ethnic minority and taboos in addition to worship of totems.Chapter 2 The contents of Chinese customary laws of ethnic minority (1). Chinese customary law of ethnic minority is abundant in contents. The article will divide these contents into three parts. Chapter 2 lays emphasis on four aspects: (a) describing and analyzing the customary law of social organization and headman; (b) customary law of marriage, including marriage procedure, relation between husband and wife, and divorce; (c) customary law of family and succession concerning kindred, family, parents-children relationship, and inheritance of property; (d) customary law of funerals, religion and social intercourse.Chapter 3 The contents of Chinese customary laws of ethnic minority (II). In the chapter, I will focus on three aspects: (a) customary law of production and distribution that includes organization of agricultural production, hunting...