Overview

The Shanghai Winter School is an intensive three-week introduction to Chinese Law and provides students with an opportunity to study, on an intensive and introductory basis, the laws and legal system of China whilst experiencing life in that country.

The Winter School is jointly organised by the Sydney Law School and the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL) and is held on the campus of ECUPL in Shanghai, China. Lectures are given by Chinese Professors in English and the program is supervised by academic staff from the Sydney Law School. A representative of the Law School will be in residence in Shanghai to oversee the course and to assist students.

The aims of the Winter School are:

• to provide an introduction to the Chinese legal system and Chinese laws;
• to encourage independent research into specific areas of Chinese law.

It is hoped that the Winter School will stimulate interest in, and analysis of, Chinese legal styles, attitudes and structures, including traditional Chinese legal values and processes, as significant factors in the understanding of modern Chinese law and the legal system.

Introduction

Interest in Chinese society and law has increased in the wake of the “Open Door Policy” announced at the end of 1978. The Four Modernisations – of agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology – have been accompanied by a “Fifth Modernisation”, that of law and the legal system destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Since 1979, China has embarked on the development of a modern legal system. While geared expressly to meet the needs of its new economic policies, this development has had profound implications for civil, criminal and administrative law and other aspects of social and political life.

Both investors and scholars are now confronted by a China which appears to seek to do things differently from the past – to use and rely on law, to spell out in codes and other enactments legal rights and duties, and to encourage citizens to turn to courts for resolution of their disputes and for remedies for injuries to their rights.

How successful has China been in building a legal system? What sort of legal and judicial system has been created? What is the nature and what are the characteristics of the laws passed? To what extent do past institutions and traditions affect present laws, their implementation and citizens’ perceptions of and attitudes to the law? How are the laws and legal institutions affecting citizens, foreign business interests and investors? How do Chinese courts function? How do Chinese lawyers operate and organise themselves?

These are some of the questions that will be raised in this unit. Considering them will help the thoughtful lawyer understand more about the character of law and the way legal systems develop. It will help students to acquaint themselves with the formal structure of the legal system, the legislative process, and the hierarchy of legal authority, courts and laws and to compare and contrast the operation of law in China and its operation in other countries. It will also help those who intend to undertake commercial activities in China to understand the political, legal and cultural context in which they will be operating – the conditions in which they will be interacting, negotiating and trading.

The unit will provide students with an overall picture of the modern Chinese legal system. It will develop a perception of its unique character by tracing its role through major social epochs and the role of law in a socialist market economy. It will examine the concept of law as a political function and the implementation of law, not so much through courts, as through administrative fiats and authority, making law essentially a function of politics and administration.

The unit will illustrate these perceptions through the study of various legal regimes.

Lecture topics may include:

• Legal History
• Constitutional Law
• Administrative Law
• Criminal Law and Procedure
• Civil Law and Procedure
• Contract Law
• Company Law
• Foreign Trade Law
• Foreign Joint Venture Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• Environmental Law
• Property Law
• People's Mediation
• Arbitration
• The Lawyer System

There will also be a visit to a Chinese law firm or a Chinese court.