1 - The Making of a Civil Code in China

Summary

The Chinese Civil Code went into effect on January 1, 2021, as the first civil code in the Communist China. Half a century of codification effort finally resulted in this much anticipated code. In its 1260 articles, the Code is divided into seven books. In a break with civilian traditions, the Chinese Civil Code divides obligations into contracts and torts, and it absorbs law of unjust enrichment into the book on contracts as quasi-contracts. Also, the book on law of personality focuses on privacy and data protection in an effort to tackle the legal challenges posed by the advancement of technology. Some of the problems that still need to be addressed for the Code to become successful come from the tensions between the rise of private law and the dominant state sector, the contradictions among legal transplants, and the clash between distributive and commutative justice. The author argues that solutions to some persistent problems require structural change in Chinese economy, doctrinal innovation, and conscientious acceptance of a law that is based upon philosophical ideas that differ from traditional Chinese moral philosophy.