TRANSCEND EMPIRICISM LEGISLATION Compile Civil Code

Abstract

China's current civil law has gradually developed under guidance of the two-step civil legislative strategy to satisfy the practical need for reform and opening-up policies over the last thirty years. Strong empirical legislation thinking causes severe defects in the internal and external system of civil law, and produces a swelling number of judicial interpretations in the implementation of the laws. A wide variety and a huge number of judicial interpretations have constituted a serious deconstructive tendency in civil law. To accommodate the new structures of the State and civil society arising in the wake of extensive reform and the promotion of the rule of law, the civil legislation of China should conform to the trend, by shifting from empiricism to rationalism and codifying civil law. For this purpose, the legislature should have a deep understanding of the attributes of private law, while abandoning the clichéd idea that pre-legislation will hamper the initiative of the people.