Law History Publications

Chinese Law: Knowledge, Practice, and Transformation, 1530s-1950s

Author: Chen, Li; Madeleine Zelin (editor)
Press: Brill
Publication Date: 2015/01/23
Language: English

Introduction

A new book on late imperial and modern Chinese law and history, edited by Li Chen and Madeleine Zelin, and contributed by a dozen ISCLH members, has just been released. Here is the information about its contents and how to order it if you are interested.

The twelve case studies in Chinese Law: Knowledge, Practice and Transformation, 1530s to 1950s, edited by Li Chen and Madeleine Zelin, open a new window onto the historical foundation and transformation of Chinese law and legal culture in late imperial and modern China. Their interdisciplinary analyses provide valuable insights into the multiple roles of law and legal knowledge in structuring social relations, property rights, popular culture, imperial governance, and ideas of modernity; they also provide insight into the roles of law and legal knowledge in giving form to an emerging revolutionary ideology and to policies that continue to affect China to the present day.

The editors hope that this will be one of a new series of books focusing on Chinese law and history from the global community of ISCLH. Its contributors include Jennifer Altehenger, Daniel Asen, Li Chen, Bryna Goodman, Weiting Guo, Jianpeng Deng, Zhao Ma, Janet Theiss, Margaret Wan, Yu Wang, Yanhong Wu, Madeleine Zelin, Ting Zhang, and Taisu Zhang.

Contents Section

Introduction: Ways of Rethinking Chinese Law and History – Li Chen and Madeleine Zelin

Part I. Meaning and Practice of Law

Chapter 1. Classifications of Litigation and Implications for Qing Judicial Practice – Jianpeng Deng

Chapter 2. Kinship Hierarchies and Property Institutions in Late-Qing and Republican China – Taisu Zhang

Chapter 3. Social Practice and Judicial Politics in “Grave Destruction” Cases in Qing Taiwan, 1683-1895 – Weiting Guo

Chapter 4. Elite Engagement with the Judicial System in the Qing and its Implications for Legal Practice and Principle – Janet Theiss

Chapter 5. “Law Is One Thing, and Virtue Is Another”: Vernacular Readings of Law and Legal Process in 1920s Shanghai – Bryna Goodman

Chapter 6. Wayward Daughters: Sex, Family, and Law in Early Twentieth-Century Beijing – Zhao Ma

Part II. Production and Application of Legal Knowledge

Chapter 7. The Community of Legal Experts in 16th- and 17th-Century China – Yanhong Wu

Chapter 8. Marketing Legal Information: Commercial Publications of the Great Qing Code, 1644-1911 – Ting Zhang

Chapter 9. Contestation over Legal Knowledge and Limits of Imperial Power in Qing China  – Li Chen

Chapter 10. Court Case Ballads: Popular Ideals of Justice in Late Qing and Republican China – Margaret Wan

Chapter 11. Old Forensics in Practice: Investigating Suspicious Deaths and Administering Justice in Republican Beijing  – Daniel Asen

Chapter 12. Simplified Legal Knowledge in the Early PRC: Explaining and Publishing the Marriage Law – Jennifer Altehenger

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