Wu Ting-fang Civil And Commercial Law Thought,

Ting fang Wu, who was the famous diplomat and jurist in late Qing Dynasty and proficient in law in china and abroad, contributed a lot to the reform of legal system of modern Chinese history. When being in charge of making laws as a chancellor in late Qing Dynasty, he combined modern western legal thought and practice together which was in the whole course of events of making laws. Referring to the chancellor of making laws in late Qing Dynasty, people usually gave thumbs up to Jiaping Shan rather than Ting fang Wu whose legal thought and analysis were ignored. Actually, during the course of making laws, Ting fang Wu put what he had learnt from British into practice and brought western laws into eastern country. In 1903, Ting fang Wu made laws of,,,etc. which were the beginning of commercial law in China.This article starts from the boyhood background of Ting fang Wu and study his living environment and thought formation. The formation, development and maturity of Ting fang Wu's commercial law is not only contingency, but the consequence of contingency and certainty which is the product of society and history. Ting fang Wu's life is full of twist and legend for saving nation and people, conforming to the historical development, bringing western learning into east and reforming. His legal thought and practice promoted modernization of Chinese laws. Because Ting fang Wu had been living in western capitalist countries for a long time, his legal thought and practice was in the front of contemporaries regardless of late Qing Dynasty or early Republic of China. His contribution of law was creative.On the base of summarizing Ting fang Wu's Civil and Commercial Law and legal practice, his history role is further analyzed and evaluated. His Civil and Commercial Law is more valued than legal practice. However, because of certain history limitations, he made some mistakes which were not suited Chinese situation when studied and transplanted Euramerican laws to China. For the above reasons, this article studies Ting fang Wu's legal thought and practice historically and objectively,for the purpose of recognizing his place in history of legal thoughts of China and providing useful lessons for modern legal construction.