The Development Of Abortion Crime Legislation Of The Republic Of China In Late Qing Dynasty

In the law reform process during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic ofChina, the legislation of the crime of abortion first appeared in China. Before themodification of the law on abortion, in Qing Dynasty there had been criminallegislation on abortion. This research will illustrate the above legislation by studyingthe terms in the Qing Code and the leading cases in the Conspectus of Penal Cases.At that time, abortion did not constitute a crime independently, but was closelyrelated with the crime of adultery, murder and other crimes. After the lawmodification began in the late Qing Dynasty, the crime of abortion became anindependent crime, the content of this crime changed comprehensively. With thelegislation of the draft of Criminal Law of Qing Dynasty, the amendment of the draftof Criminal Law of Qing Dynasty, the current Criminal Law of Qing Dynasty andthe New Criminal Code of Qing Dynasty, the terms of the crime of abortion wasimproved gradually. In this process, the legislation of abortion of the Qing Dynastywas developed, including the theory’s development, charge and penalty system’sevolution and the perfection of content. In the period of the Republic of China, thelegislation of the crime of abortion continued to develop. The Temporary NewCriminal law, the Criminal Law of the Republic of China in1928and the CriminalLaw of the Republic of China in1935continued to revise the terms of the crime ofabortion. The three above laws were enforced, many courts had difficulties inapplying the terms of the crime of abortion. The Grand Council of Justice andthe Judicial Department interpreted and made the legislation of the crime of abortionmore comprehensive and detailed. The legislation of the crime of abortion of theRepublic of China also made some progress, including the obvious changes ofcontent, the further development of the ways of interpretation and the developinglegislative techniques. After describing the regulations of the crime of abortion, thisresearch continues to see the regulations’ social adaptability during the late QingDynasty and the Republic of China. Although the regulations were improved in boththe content and the legislative techniques during the two periods, the implementationeffect was not so good in China. The reasons are as follow: the religious factor limited the regulations’ implementation, the economical factors affected theregulations’ implementation, the political factors affected the regulations’implementation, Birth Control and the other social movements replaced some of thefunction of the regulations, the self-awareness of women limited the regulation’seffect and social morality had some effects on the regulation’s implementation. Thelegislation of the crime of abortion during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic ofChina had some disadvantages: the legislation didn’t obey the leading legislativeprinciple of The combination of courtesy and law, lacked the support of nativetheory of law and overlooked the social needs.