The Compilation Of Chinese Civil Law And Comparative Law

In the legal history of code compilation, comparison of laws hadclose relationship with legislative activities from the very beginning.Most countries started and amended their laws by means of comparison.With the development of legal study, comparison of laws has alreadyevolved into a higher level, i.e. comparative law, which deepens suchkind of relationship. The history of compiling civil law is of no exception,either in the enacting or in amending process. Therefore, the study aboutthe relationship between the compilation of civil law and comparative lawis of great significance, especially for the on-going compilation of CivilLaw Code of the PRC. This dissertation mainly discusses the relationshipbetween the compilation of contemporary Chinese civil laws andcomparative law, analyzes its effect and influence, and states certainproblems in current code compilation and their solutions.The contemporary compilation of Chinese civil codes can be tracedback to the late Qing Dynasty, when the first civil law code draft waspromulgated. By the means of comparison, the Qing Administrativeabsorbed or even copied a large amount of provisions from foreign civillaws and improved the existing civil tradition, which exerted greatinfluence on the following compilation of civil laws, such as the seconddraft of Civil law by Beijing Administrative and the first Civil Law byKMD Administrative in Minguo Period, both of which were initiated bythe development of comparative law. Since 1949, when the PRC wasfounded, Chinese new legal system was started, including drafting thecivil law code twice, but, for the sake of lacking comparative law, neitherof them succeeded in the end. After the reform and opening-up, thecompilation of civil law code is placed on the agenda again. It is alreadyproved that when the compilation and study of civil law were retarded isjust when the study of comparative law was at its low ebb;and theconstruction and compilation of the Chinese civil law and the renaissanceand florescence of science of civil law are all in the wake of and based onthe development of the comparative law.As the development and progress of the human society, the wholeworld is becoming smaller and smaller, which makes obviously the trendof economic globalization. One of its influences is legal globalization, towhich the comparison of laws or comparative law is indispensable in asense. Therefore, the current compilation of Chinese Civil Law Codeshould refer to the experience of contemporary Chinese civil laws and theworld civil law codes, making full usage of the development ofcomparative law.