Chinese Law. From the Ancient to the New Silk Road

This volume, intended primarily for university students attending Chinese Legal System or History of China courses, traces the path taken by Chinese law from its origins to the present day. The paradigmatic features of the Chinese legal tradition are outlined starting from its origins and the forms assumed in Imperial China and following the difficult encounter with the western legal tradition, including the socialist one. It will also be demonstrated the centrality of the rule by law in today’s Chinese society thanks to the “reform and opening-up” policies launched in 1978 and the path that still separates the Chinese legal system from the full reception of the western principles of the rule of law. Meanwhile the Belt and Road Initiative, the approval of the Civil Code and the introduction of artificial intelligence in the courts project the Chinese legal model beyond its borders, grafting it onto the highway in which the models of the Western legal tradition have always circulated undisturbed.