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The Li and the Fa Along Chinese Legal History

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Submitted By tristanv
Words 3523
Pages 15
2012
中国政法大学

Tristan Alberto Vaca Narvaja

[THE LI AND THE FA ALONG
CHINESE LEGAL HISTORY]

China University of Political Science and Law 中国政法大学
An Overview of Chinese Legal System

Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to make an analysis about how the concepts of Fa and Li interacted between each other along the Chinese legal history, starting with a brief summary of the dynastic eras, and focusing in what we could call modern legal history, what I consider starts on the late Qing Dynasty. The analysis ends with the admission of China to the WTO, because I think that is a topic that deserves a whole new article for itself, and due to time limitations cannot be developed properly.
The reason why I have chosen this theme is because I firmly believe that to be able to understand nowadays legal debates and legislation is necessary to have an idea about the broad historical and ideological Chinese framework. Along the more than 5.000 years of history, China has reinvented itself several times, learning from the hits and misses, unsurprisingly legal principles and legislation has followed the same stream.
This papers starts with the genesis of the Li and Fa concepts, relating it with the
Confucianism and legalism philosophies. Then, the each section illustrates an important period in
Chinese history, emphasizing the situation of the law. Those sections comprehends, the late Qing dynasty, the republican era, the changes during the communist era, the application of the cultural revolution and the effects of Deng Xiaoping open policy.

The origins of the Li and the Fa
If we are talking about the development of Chinese Law, we cannot overlook the two principle waves that have signed the thinking of Chinese scholars, the Legalism and the
Confucianism
Legalism started around the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C) and according to it, the only way

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