Research On The Center Judicial Office Law Interpretation System In Early Republic Period (1912-1927)

At the beginning of the Republic (of China) period, as the supreme judicial organization of China, the Center Judicial Office had the right to interpret the unified laws (according to the 35th Article of the Court Organization Law). During the sixteen years (1912-1927), it made altogether 2012 laws interpretations and released about 2800 cases. The law interpretation files announced or systematically compiled by it had the same effectiveness with the law, and this produced profound influence on the judicial activities. Gradually, the law interpretation system was formed, and this system specified that the law interpretation rights should be exercised through the specific files released by the supreme judicial organization.The law interpretation system of the Center Judicial Office was formed and improved through practices under the specific historical background when there were not enough laws and the judicial adjudication was not standardized. The Center Judicial Office demonstrated the subject, object, forms and procedure of the interpretation by releasing announcements, interpreting documents and precedents as well as formulating regulations. Compared with the western law interpretation system, the legal system at the beginning of the Republic period classified the law interpretation rights to the power of the supreme judicial organization and exercised it by means of releasing interpretation cases and precedents. The systematically compiled interpretation cases and precedents had the same abstract constraint force with law, and were unique in its own way. The emergence of such system was partly because of the social reality at that time, but most importantly it was closely related to the traditional Chinese law interpretation system, in other words, such law interpretation system was the continuation and development of the traditional Chinese law interpretation system. On the one hand, it had its own advantages:it met the judicial needs of unifying laws; it safeguarded the judicial independence and transmitted the advanced western law concept; but on the other hand, as the product under the special historical background, it had inevitable limits:the law interpretation was complicated and conservative; it had abstract constraint force thus it kind of infringed the legislative power; in addition, it treated the law interpretation as a kind of authority belonging to the supreme judicial organization which directly caused the incapability of the local courts laws interpretation and caused people's misunderstanding of law interpretation. The law interpretation system of the Center Judicial Office got inherited and developed during the National Government Period and eventually became the new constitutional review system.Under the special historical background when China experienced its enormous changes, the legal system construction and judicatory practice at that time also experienced painful alternatives and disintegration. The establishment of the Center Judicial Office law interpretation system was the experiment of some law professionals at that time. It greatly influenced the law interpretation practices during the National Government Period and even inspired our present judicial interpretation system in some way. If we scan the history, we can see the centurial legal reform was an entire system. Although there were twists and turns, we could still see the thread of legal reform:its inheritance and development. We could foresee the future by reviewing the past. May be the exploration of our precedents could give us some inspiration in solving our present problems.