Sociology Of Law In China

Sociology of law, an extraordinary school in the west with distinguished characteristics, has great influence on the Chinese legal trend after being introduced into China in the early 20th century. This dissertation analyzes its origin and spreading, academic features, specific principles and development trend of sociology of law in China from such aspects as comparison between the west and China, history and the present, theories and facts.This dissertation is peculiar in that it is on a Chinese legal research basis. While there is no recognized jurisprudence school currently in China, our legal research should have our own academic objectives, spectrum, contents and characteristics. Sociology of law, originating from western academic theories, should also have its spreading history, rooting soil, research ranges and creative thoughts in China. The purpose of this article is to systematize the milestone and pattern that we should take advantage of the western theories of sociology of law to serve China, which has been put into application since the Republic of China. Surely, this is a peculiar, stereoscopic, comparative, novel and blank-filling process. The innovation should lie in the following three aspects. First, the past research topics concentrated mostly on the illustration of the legal system, but not on legal problems, while this article focuses on the study of jurisprudence schools from a particular angle of view. Secondly, the previous research topics focused mainly on the induction of traditional legal theories, while this article is concerned with the comments on the thoughts of the present jurists. Thirdly, the past research topics paid more attention on the views of the western sociology of law, while this article emphasizes the establishment, development and specific studies of thesociology of law in China.As far as the structure is concerned, this dissertation can be divided into four parts. The first part mainly introduces the academic experts, their works and thoughts of the western sociology of law in order to offer a theoretical preparation for the research of sociology of law in China. The second part chronologically outlines the spreading sequence of sociology of law in China so as to exhibit the historical background and characteristics of its spreading in China. The third part generalizes various opinions on "China's Issues" by the Chinese jurists by means of principles and methodology of sociology of law, and conducts a three-dimensional analysis and macroscopic observation of the sociology of law trend in China. The last part is a general comment on sociology of law thoughts, analyzing its advantages and strong points, shortcomings and weak points, trend and future.Part I: Original Theory-the historical origin and ideological featuresof western sociology of law. It is the basis and trunk of the dissertation, composed of two important topics. One is to uncover the forming process of western sociology of law, by dividing it into such four periods as deliberation, forming, development and perfection, mainly about the opinions and contributions of chief representatives, such as Jhering, Gierke, Dugui, Durkheim, Ehrlich, Weber, Pound and Holmes. The other is about the basic principles of western sociology of law, covering the legal concepts, relations, functions, values and research methodology.Part II: Eastern Spreading of Western Theories-the influence andevolution process of sociology of law in China. This part sketches the historical outline of the development of sociology of law in China. The article divides its spreading in China into three stages. The first is thefoundation-laying stage-the period of the Republic of China, whenjurists initiated the first upsurge of the sociology of law research. The second is the suspension stage from the 1950s to 1980s, during which the western sociology of law was criticized and Marxist legal theories took up the leading position in social ideology. The third is the development stage from 1980s to the present, in which the sociology of law research recovered and has been quickly advancing.Part III: China's Issues-the peculiar topics and theories of sociologyof law, which is the core of the whole dissertation. This part summarizes themain concerning research fields of sociology of law in China, covering five theoretical topics of legal philosophy: the basic ranges of Chinese legal philosophy; the Chinese folk-law and custom; the Chinese legal culture and legal construction; the Chinese civilian society and political country issues; the Chinese legal operation and department laws. The major responsibility of this dissertation is to discuss and analyze the China-originated heated legal topics and issues, based on the principal theories of sociology of law.Part IV: Conclusive Comment-the basic orientation and evaluation ofthe Chinese theories on sociology of law. This is the conclusion and evaluation and the most difficult part of the whole dissertation. With subtitles of 'Broad Way Ahead","Zigzagged Process " and "Longing for Innovation", this part analyzes the advantages and disadvantages and prospective of the sociology of law theories in the following three aspects: strong points, weak points and future tendency. It also bears many expectations in the development of the Chinese jurisprudence schools, putting forward the quota system of the subjective and objective conditions to form the Chinese jurisprudence schools. This kind of exploration is of somehow "superficial opinions from a humble person", yet, it has certain significance and reference value in the Chinese legal research and jurisprudence school founding.To sum up, motivated by the social practice and contemporary tide of legal prosperity, sociology of law has become mature in China, which can be regarded as a powerful ideological trend of the Nanjing Government and the contemporary legal circles. This trend, mainly including the concepts of " living-law " " folk-law " " spontaneous discipline ' " social rule " " social control" "legal operation' "legal effect" , has influenced the research on modern legal philosophy and historical jurisprudence, and become an approach of observing the developing pattern of China jurisprudence. The gist of this dissertation is, from the viewpoint of schools in sociology of law, to build a bridge from western law to China's law, from traditional legal research to modern legal research, from theoretical studies to social practice.