Development Of The Copyright Law Of Modern China

The subject of this thesis is the development of the copyright law of modern China. It has focused on the copyright law around the end of Qing Dynasty (from 1903 to 1910). General Introduction In this part, the author has examined the origin of the term, copyright, and also listed the clue of the history of the legal system on copyright of Ancient China. She holds that the governmental notices for the protection of copies in Ancient China should be regarded as the germination of Chinese law on copyright. The transplantation of the law on copyright from western countries started from Modern China and it has been going on for more than one hundred years. This process has become the main line of the development of the law on copyright of modern China. Chapter I: Western copyright law imported to China. This chapter has systematically clarifies the way and the method of the popularization of the copyright laws of western countries, including the Chinese description of the terms relating to copyright in Japanese dictionaries and books, the first Chinese version of Study on Copyright, western missionary's comments on copyright, Chinese version of legislative models of the laws on copyright of foreign countries and Berne Convention etc. Based on the studies mentioned above, it has found to what extent Chinese people knew and understood the laws on copyright of western countries before the legislation on copyright around the end of Qing Dynasty. Chapter II: Copyright legislation around the end of Qing Dynasty. By putting the domestic legal rules and the clauses of international conventions on copyright within one chapter and making comprehensive examination of those rules and conventions, this chapter has helped us broken through the tradition, that the research on the laws of Qing Dynasty is limited within the scope of the domestic law, so it has enlarged our thought and view to Sino-foreign rules. From this, we have come to see the double lines of the legislation on copyright of modern China and notice the semi-colonial character of Chinese society from the point of law. Chapter III: Transplantation of foreign laws made in Copyright Code of Great Qing Dynasty. Through the comparison between the articles of Copyright Code of Great Qing Dynasty and the relative articles of Japanese law, this chapter has examined the same principles or systems, the different spirit of the laws imbedded in the two countries, the critical inheritance of Japanese law in the code, it has also examined other related respects of the transplantation of foreign laws, then it gave such conclusion : the Copyright Code of Great Qing Dynasty is the product of transplantation of Japanese laws of and that of other countries indeed. But transplantation does not mean making a copy of foreign laws, amendment and deletion was made according to the reality of the Chinese society. Actually, this part has involved the question about the reservation of local legal culture in the process of legal transplantation. Chapter IV: The implementation of the copyright laws around the end of Qing Dynasty. By sorting out the data about administrative measures relating to copyright law and historical documents on judicial practice, this chapter has analyzed the stamp system issued by the state, the judicial method of local court in the cases of copyright and the legal suits heard by the mixed court composed of foreign colonial officials and the institution of Qing Dynasty etc. So this part has disclosed the different aspects of the practice of the copyright laws around the end of Qing Dynasty, and it has helped us clarify some misunderstandings of such history. At that time, China was just in the period of sufferings. However, the unstable political situation also meant renovation and activity. Sino-foreign litigation demonstrated that justice and neutrality of law has helped law has the spiritual value of human civilization.Conclusion: The influence of the copyright law around the end of Qing Dynasty. This thesis chooses the development of the copyright law of Modern China as its subject and focus on the period from 1903 to 1910 during which copyright law was generated, the reason should be this: the copyright law around the end of Qing Dynasty was the milestone of the history of Chinese law on copyright. It followed the headstream of the legal culture of copyright of Ancient China and represented the new beginning of the copyright law of Modern China, it has built a solid basis for copyright law of the Republic of China and even that of the People's Republic of new China. Therefore, it has deep and long influence. Meanwhile, the economic and political situation of Modern China's transiting from feudalism to capitalism made the copyright law of Modern China characterized with the mark of transition from special approval system to right system. Research Method: Under the theoretical background of the modernization of Chinese law, this thesis starts from the view of foreign legal history. It has clarifies the key links and clue of the development of the copyright law of Modern China. The method of induction is used when exploring the theoretical clue of the legislations on copyright around the end of Qing Dynasty. The method of Legal Sociology is used when examining the operation of the copyright law in real society around the end of Qing Dynasty. And the professional method of legal thought and analysis is used when discovering the legislation and judicial practice of the law on copyright of Modern China, the domestic legislation and the international private law, the judicial judgments of local courts and the mixed court composed of foreign colonial officials and the institution of Qing Dynasty under the system of extraterritoriality. In the respective study of the transplantation of foreign laws, forms were provided, and the articles were explained one by one, so as to avoid the inclination of oversimplifying the questions. All in all, the study method of demonstration has been generally adopted. All the conclusions of this thesis are based on the careful analysis of historical documents and the conceptualization of deduction has been avoided.