Study On Tibetan Civil Customary Law In China

Tibetan, people who reside on the snow-capped plateau have formed what isbelieved to be a “unique” civil law thanks to their special geographic location, livingenvironment, mode of production and life, religion and customs. Tibetan civilcustomary law is accredited and complied by members of villages’ in Tibet, it is a socialnorm people accumulated through thousands of years’ continuous production andpractices which aimed at adjusting personal relations and property relation of the region.As an important basis of the code of conduct in Tibetan region, Tibetan civil law playsan indispensable role in sustaining order of politics, economics and social life of Tibet.Even in modern times, Tibetan civil customary law still has every reason of being inexistence, it plays a crucial role in all aspects of Tibetan society, for instance, culturalenvironment, economic status, ethics and legal resources. However, the fact that manychapters in Tibetan civil customary law are the products of the previous feudal serfdomsociety is undeniable, those chapters have a strong nature of class and hierarchy andprivilege. This special characteristic of Tibetan civil customary law caused a series ofconflicts and confrontations with constitutional law of PRC. Therefore, to adjust therelations between Tibetan civil customary law and constitutional law so as to realize thenational legal system uniformity become a major issue in the process of modernizationof role of laws; that is to say, to meet both the requirements of the national legal systemuniformity, but also to maintain a reasonable Tibetan traditional legal culture uniquenessand inheritance; in another word, to make the best use of the already rooted Tibetancivil customary law, combine skillfully the good parts in it with the national law, andform a modern legal system which best suits national situation is a tough issue waitingto be solved.Data collection, field study and analysis of relevant materials are the ways Iemployed in writing this essay, this paper was formed on the basis of researches onTibetan civil customary law, and analysis on ongoing conflicts and compatibility ofTibetan customary law and national law. The major aim of this essay is to providesuggestions on how to deal with the relations between Tibetan civil customary law andnational law, realize the positive interaction between them, thereby promoting both themodernization of Tibetan legal system and uniformity of national legal system. In thisthesis, five aspects were discussed.The first chapter for the introduction,it is mainly discussed from the background of research,significance of research and research statusreview.In the second part, I put Tibetan civil customary law in a more extensivebackground, starting from the most basic theory, distinguishing the confusing conceptbetween custom and customary law, thus, to define the concept of Tibetan civilcustomary law, as well as the impact brought about by various aspects of factors toTibetan civil customary law in it’s formation, and then, the characteristics of Tibetancivil customary law were analyzed and summarized. The third chapter further discussedthe form of expression and functions of the China’s Tibetan civil customary law. Thefourth chapter focuses on the introduction of contents of the Tibetan civil customary law,mainly from the physical aspects and procedures.The fifth chapter is starts from theperspective of national laws and specific analysis of the conflicting and integratingcontents of the Tibetan civil customary law and state law, providing theoretical analysisfor correctly handling the relationship between the two. I started from an empiricalperspective in chapter six, made scientific treatment to the issue according to thedifferent roles of Tibetan civil customary law and it’s practical influence, in the meantime, I put forward some personal humble opinions on the improvement of the legalenvironment of Tibetan regions’ in China.