“To make a civil code of China’s own is a dream of generations of Chinese civil jurists,” said
Wang Liming, chairman of the Civil Law Division under the China Law Society.
Now, the dream is coming true as the upcoming 3rd Session of the 13th National People’s
Congress (NPC) is about to approve the draft of the Chinese civil code.
The civil code is a milestone in China’s legislative history. It is the first law named with “code”
since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, as well as a basic civil legal norm,
Wang introduced.
It is divided into seven sections, namely the general rules, as well as provisions on property,
contract, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and torts. Established on Chinese
practices and learning from the foreign legislative experiences, the civil code demonstrates the
development level of China’s civil legislation.
According to Wang, China’s legislative departments have initiated the making of civil code for
times, but had to adopt a “retail after wholesale” strategy restricted by the then social and
economic development, which means the country planned to firstly make individual laws on
property, contract and torts, etc., and then compile a civil code based on those.
However, the compilation of the civil code is not simply “adding up” the laws, but integrating the
existing individual civil laws in a science-based and logical manner with intrinsic consistency, and
filling legislative gaps in certain areas.
“The civil code will make individual laws more comprehensive, systematic and coordinated,
which helps better balance the problems in different individual laws,” Wang said. It will also
provide comprehensive, authoritative and systematic arbitration rules for jurisdiction departments,
as well as guide and normalize different civil conducts for the public, he added.
The section on personality rights is a major high light of the Chinese civil code, Wang noted,
explaining the section answers to the need for personality rights protection in the era of internet
and big data and responds to the challenges for personality rights protection. It has Chinese
characteristic and showcases Chinese wisdom, Wang said.
The draft section on personality rights established a system of injunction which enables the courts
to issue injunctions against the practices infringing upon personality rights, said Wang, adding that
it helps offer timely assistance for victims.
Wang told People’s Daily that legislative departments have done a huge amount of work, and the
jurisprudential circle and legal profession have both made constructive contributions since the 4th
Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) decided
to compile the civil code.
Each draft section of the civil code has been deliberated and revised by the NPC Standing
Committee, and now the draft civil code is generally in good shape. Wang said he hopes the code
will be implemented soon, so as to offer strong support for comprehensively promoting law-based
governance.
The property law is approved at the 5th Session of the 10th National People’s Congress, which
concludes in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing on March 16, 2007.
