End Of The Qing Customary Investigation Of Civil And Commercial Matters

During the period of transition between Qing Dynasty and People's Republic, two extensive and in-depth surveys of civil and commercial intercourse habits were successively carried out through widespread mobilization by provincial survey institutions set up by the state for the need of legislation and jurisdiction. This paper focused on analyzing the subjective and objective motives and their value orientation of the surveys, researching into the social mechanism of traditional habits during that period, reviewing their start-up, development, geographical scope and time span, systematically sorting out and analyzing survey questions, and studying the influence of these surveys on legislation, jurisdiction, and ideology during that period. In the end, the revelation of the surveys to contemporary legal system modernization was expatiated with discussion of contemporary market economy and globalization.There were profound social and economic factors leading to the surveys of civil and commercial intercourse habits carried out during the period of transition between Qin Dynasty and People's Republic. The unique, interacting state-social structure of traditional Chinese society that existed in conflict and coordination laid a solid foundation for the coexistence of state legislation and civil habits. The development of commodity economy during the period of transition between Qing Dynasty and People's Republic as well as the expansion of civil family influence also provided basic conditions for the far-ranging existence of civil and commercial intercourse habits. As far as the direct causes were concerned, the surveys of civil and commercial intercourse habits at the end of Qing Dynasty resulted from the need of collecting and compiling materials and statistics to prepare for the establishment of constitutions and revision of laws and also out of the wishes of "finding the laws most suitable for the situation in China. " .On the other hand, the surveys, the surveys at the beginning stage of People' s Republic were mostly carried out for the need of civil and commercial conflict mediation and trials.Most of the provinces in China at that time were involved in the large-scale surveys with good harvests. At the end of Qing Dynasty, civil habit surveys concerned civil rights with respect to general principles, property rights, creditors' rights, kinship, and inheritance relationships; commercial intercourse habit surveys dealtwith general issues of commercial intercourse and commercial conduct. At the beginning stage of People's Republic, civil habit surveys included the general principles, property rights, creditors' rights, kinship, and inheritance relationships of civil rights; commercial intercourse habits included the situations, general issues of commercial intercourse, and specific commercial conduct.Survey results had different effects on the legislation, jurisdiction, social fashion, and.subject ideology. They had revelations to modern society: the surveys were in themselves a rational movement of an epoch-making significance, which"embodied modern law spirit" and "expressed characters of Chinese nationality. " The construction logic of real laws requires the concerns for and conformity to"habitual rights" with "priority." With modern globalization as the historical background, the implement of habit surveys and respect for good commercial intercourse habits, creation of civil legal systems in conformity with China' s situation, and conservation of local resources as well as humanity contained which is helpful to bring laws into reality are the only way of legal development in China and also one of the effective ways to guarding against the trap of "legal capitalism. "...