Chinese Legal History Society (CLHS) was founded in 1976 with the suggestions from some esteemed legal professionals.  The ideas are to promote the Chinese legal traditions along with the Chinese culture and to ensure those traditional spirits can also align with the latest legal thoughts newly introduced.  Hence, in May 4th, friends who devoted themselves in legal profession decided to establish a society that can serve above goals.  In September 9th 1976, Chinese Legal History Society was formally established with agreed charter, research projects and other prominent issues.  Later, CLHS registered itself in Ministry of Interior of ROC system at number 8715101 as the non-profit organization.  Those founders such as professor Yao, Qi-qing; Lin, Ji-dong; Cha, Lian-gjian; Han, Zhong-mo; Gui, Yu; Yang, Ri-ran; Lin, Yong-rong; Jin, Shi-ding; Cheng, Chung-mo; Lin, Mao-song; Pan, Wei-he; Weng, Yueh-sheng; Shi, Qiy-ang; and Lu, Guang were elected as Directors of CLHS.  Besides, Mr. Dai, Yan-hui was nominated as the President and Mr. Tao, Xi-sheng, Chen, Gu-yuan were voted as Board of Supervisors.

As time flies, all members of each term had contributed their dedication and good effort that makes CHLS able to sustain for 40 years.  Prof. Huang, Yuan-Sheng and Prof. Kao, Ming-Shih served as 18th/19th President of CLHS and Prof. Chen, Hwei-Syin served as 22th/21st President, Prof. Chen Den-Wu is the present 22nd President from April 1, 2019.  Here are the photos of CHLS' Presdient for the latest four terms:

  Prof. Kao, Ming-Shih (18/19)     Prof. Chen, Hwei-Syin (20/21)          Prof. Chen, Den-Wu (22)

According to the Charter, the objective of CHLS is to study Chinese legal system and to compare various legal systems.  Furthermore, CHLS has four major tasks as follows:

1. To conduct academic seminars and deliver lectures.

2. To publish academic papers and periodicals

3. To enhance the communication with academia in foreign countries

4. To promote legal studies to our best

As listed in article 5 of CHLS’ charter, anyone equipped with one of the qualifications can apply for the membership:

1. Those who conduct legal studies or other related research

2. Master or Ph.D. students with main focus in legal studies

3. Those who have interest in legal studies

It is our hope that CHLS can become an interdisciplinary platform for social science and natural science studies.  CHLS also hope scholars have willingness to publish their research findings in Journal for Legal History Studies (JLHS) edited by CHLS and Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.  With all these efforts, we can well expect the Chinese legal system which carries profound Chinese traditions not only can be preserved but also can be further expanded. 

About CLHS Website 

CLHS website was first created by Prof. Huang, Yuan-Sheng in the Google platform to provide latest information to researchers with the same study focus and to meet requirements of Taiwan Humanities Citation Index (THCI).  Later, to ensure CLHS’ website can incorporate more information with well-structured layouts, Prof. Chen, Hwei-Syin decided to reconstruct the website in Google platform and the reconstruction task, including Chinese/English scripts writing and layout designing, was led by Secretary General Dr. Lee, Wan-Gen and the supporting staff Miss Liu, Melodia and Miss Tang, Xiang-Quan.  As the space offered by Google is limited and the fixed layout can not be modified friendly, Prof. Chen decided to work with professional designer to create an even better website at the following address: www.clegalhistory.org.  In this way, the web address can easily be remembered and the identity as a non-profit organization can also be known to all.  With almost 7 months effort, until July 23, 2016, the website is now available with newly added features such as searching master/Ph.D. thesis, JLHS bibliographical information, and latest law history publications.  Furthermore, the English version is also made available in June 15, 2016.  We would like to give our special thanks to CLHS' member Dr. Wangen Lee, and Mr. Elven Hwang/Mr. Jim Su of TXC Corporation and Miss Lori Chen of iWare who helped the whole reconstruction process.  We sincerely hope CLHS website can serve as a bridge for domestic/foreign scholars and become a foundation for friends with interest in legal studies.