After 66 years of effort, China finally consolidated its civil laws into a unified Civil Code. This is a historical accomplishment. It will be remembered as one of the milestones of the current renaissance in China.
A good body of laws should be comprehensive, consistent, practical and streamlined. The Civil Code, in my opinion, has come a long way toward accomplishing that. It is among the most advanced and progressive in the world today. But what is more important are the series of deepened reforms in China's legal governance in recent years.
What is the Civil Code? It is a codification of all elements of the civil laws into a systemic structure, conducive to easy reference. In the process of codification, the National People's Congress also combed through and updated the existing legal statutes and guidelines to (i) iron out practical inconsistencies, (ii) modify arcane provisions, (iii) introduce laws to better serve today’s technological society, and (iv) emphasize environmental objectives. The Civil Code will become effective Jan. 1, 2021.
In addition, the Civil Code sets up a clear conceptual framework for the body of civil laws by spelling out the overall principles. It enshrines the legal tenets of socialism with Chinese characteristics. A core principle of the codification, clearly stated in the introduction, is to achieve the dual objectives of the rule by law and the rule by virtue. Under China's people democracy, laws must serve the masses and society as a whole. It should not favor any one group, for example the rich and monied lobbyists, over the rest of society. It must be fair, efficient and effective in practice.
The Civil Code provides a user-friendly tool for ordinary citizens to understand their legal rights and responsibilities. It makes legal knowledge relatively easy to find and not difficult to read. It is a significant step toward democratizing the access to civil rights and governance.
The Civil Code organizes the 1,260 articles in the legal statutes into systematically cross-referenced sections, covering the overall principles, property rights, contracts, personal rights, marital and family affairs, inheritance and tort liability. Compendiums of the Civil Code have been published to help readers understand their practical applications. Authoritative explanations of each legal provision, in varying degrees of details depending on the users’ needs, can be sourced relatively easily and comprehensively. The Civil Code and its explanatory compendiums are therefore being called the "encyclopedia of social life in China." Everyone should have a copy.
The passage of the Civil Code by the National People's Congress came after a series of deepened reforms in China's legal governance. Following the remarkable efforts to stamp out corruption and tighten Party and governmental disciplines, the country's leadership has taken decisive steps to institutionalize the disciplinary and supervisory reforms. The overall objective is to prevent the abuse of power, by "putting power inside the institutional cage." It aims at establishing a water-tight system of legal governance, with the central goal of effectively and efficiently serving the people.
For example, the supervisory bodies of the Party and government are now separated from the administrative bodies, granting the former independence and inspection authority. The judiciary has undergone major reforms. All judges have been screened through uniform aptitude examinations. They now have to bear personal legal responsibilities for their decisions. These reform measures lay the foundation for integrity.
At the same time, supervisory monitoring and the use of technology have made the judicial process much more accessible and efficient for litigants. Online filings have led to transparency and quick procedural accountability. Gone are the days when the common people feel that filing lawsuits and petitions was like climbing through an obstacle course.
Nowadays, judgments are handed down relatively quickly, and the appeal process is more streamlined. It is no longer difficult to get one's day in court (often, one does not even have to appear in court). Ordinary people and their lawyers can confer efficiently by referring to the new unified Civil Code.
In the spirit of China's ongoing reforms, there is no best solution, only better. The Civil Code, with the ever-deepening of legal governance reforms, is one significant practical step in the right direction.
(The author is a retired international investment banker and certified public accountant. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in international relations, and Columbia Business School with an MBA in finance.)