| China underwent tremendous change in social systems during the Republican period. Among these changes, a new legal system based upon Western model was first introduced to the Chinese society. Much previous scholarship portrayed the implementation of the new system in Shanghai or in the civil law regime. This dissertation examines how the new legal system worked in Beijing, a city enrooted with deep traditions, with particular attention given to the criminal justice system in the early twentieth century. It discusses how the participants in the new criminal justice system such as lawyers, policemen, judges and crime specialists perceived and reacted to this process of legal transplant, against the particular backdrops of culture and tradition of Beijing. Lawyers in the early Republic were influenced by the legacy of litigation masters. Republican police force could not get rid of the responsibilities of the imperial gendarmerie troop. Judges of the newly set up law court relied on their recollection of imperial teachings when they ruled on criminal cases for the Republic. From their reactions, this dissertation argues that the reform in criminal justice system in the early twentieth century did not involve an outright adoption of the Western model and a rejection of the Chinese one; rather, in practice, it represented a synthesis of the new rules and the traditional practices. This dissertation further argues that the perception of roles and responsibilities of these participants drove their appropriation between the new rules and the old practices when they carried out their judicial functions. Such perception and response contributed to shaping the development and outcome of the legal reform of China in the early twentieth century. This approach may provide insights not only into the legal reform of the Republican period, but also into the post-Mao era when once again a modern legal system based on the Western model has been introduced, this time within a socialist regime. |
