The legal commentary culture in China

Abstract

This chapter examines critically the legal literature in China, with a specific focus on the development of the genre of commentary on civil law. Providing the background of the development of civil law, the author illustrates the interplay between legislation, judicial opinions and rulings, and legal scholarship as sources of law in China. The purpose is to demonstrate the importance of integrating these sources in a legal commentary. A general overview of legal publications in China identifies areas of improvement for existing commentaries and evidences the need for the publication of a large-scale commentary. Through comparative analysis of authoritative commentary literature from other jurisdictions, the author presents the conditions to be met and criteria to be attained for completing an ideal commentary culture in China.