Research Of Shanghai’s Woman Lawsuit Of Early Times In The Republic Of China

From the perspective of modern woman, the litigation activity is themain channel to maintain their legal right. The understanding andutilization of law has also become a critical part of their daily life.The number of female litigation cases is numerous and involved in alllevels of social life. In retrospective of history, Shanghai women hadalso taken part in the legal litigation activities in a number of casesduring the period of early Republic. Due to the influence of thepatriarchal system throughout the history of China’s social evolvement,the woman community had been suffering from weak and inferior socialstatus. Therefore, during the period of early Republic, what kinds ofright have been endowed to them and what was the situation of theirinvolvement in the litigation activities? Moreover, what kind ofawareness did they have in terms of the legal litigation issues? Thisarticle aims to study the cases of active plea by women in the reportsof local news feature of Shenbao during the period from1912to1914andthe instructions of women plea written cases by the Trial Chamber of the Prosecutor’s Office. By organizing, comparing and analyzing a series ofissues including the causes of prosecution and results, litigationstrategies, female legal awareness and legal status in early RepublicShanghai, is devoted to depicting a preliminary outline of the womenjudicial proceedings in Shanghai during the period of early RepublicThere are four chapters in this article. The first chapter accounts forthe basic social status and Shanghai women’s living profiles in earlyRepublic. This chapter helps to understand the lives of women in thatcertain period, while combing the judiciary institutions involved in afemale’s litigation in Shanghai. The second chapter studies the casespleaded by women reported in Shenbao during the period of1912-1914.Through the analysis on the types of cases and the judicial outcome ofwomen plead trials, this chapter explores the identity background of womenas a subject and the specific content of these trials and the correspondingjudicial results. The third chapter digs deeper into the motivation ofwomen litigations and the strategies adopted during litigation. Throughthe analysis of these case studies, this chapter shows that women useda variety of means to achieve their ultimate goal of litigating actions.Based on the studies above, the last chapter summarizes the legal statusand legal awareness of women in early Republic.