RUC Legal Scholars Contribute to the Drafting of Chinese Civil Code

(The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China was adopted)

The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China was adopted at the 3rd Session of the 13th National People’s Congress of PRC on May 28, 2020, declaring a new era of China’s civil law.

Honored as the “encyclopedia of social life”, the Civil Code consists of seven parts on general provisions, property rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, tort liabilities and supplementary provisions, totaling 1260 clauses. Law scholars led by Prof. Wang Liming from RUC Law School have made important contributions to the Civil Code.

First, in the Civil Code codification project led by China Law Society, participants from RUC Law School were the most among countrywide law schools.

Professors Wang Liming, Wang Yi, Yang Lixin, Zhang Xinbao and Long Yifei worked as the convener and leader in enacting Parts of Contracts, Property, Inheritance, Tort and Marriage and Family respectively. Professors Gao Shengping, Yao Hui and Shi Jiayou also participated in the legislation as major members. Professor Zhu Hu, as the member of Civil Code codification group of Legislative Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, since April 2017, has directly participated in drafting Civil Code and written several briefs for Civil Code popularization.

(Professor Wang Liming on the 13th National People’s Congress)

Second, serving as think-tank, the panel from RUC has made massive research on Civil Code. During the enactment, RUC team has written dozens of expert proposals to the legislature and published 34 books and over 200 academic papers about Civil Code. From 2016 to 2019, entrusted by the legislature, the team has held 12 major projects and managed over 20 domestic or international seminars regarding Civil Code, providing constructive opinions and suggestions which are finally accepted by the legislature.

For example, the theory of independence of Personality Rights Part and Tort Part was first brought up and further studied by Prof. Wang Liming, later turned to be commonly agreed both theoretically and practically. The idea of “human concern” and rules on business environment in Civil Code were also initiated and comprehensively discussed by RUC panel.

(Editor: Wen Hui, Gao Kaiming, Sun Hanlin)