Legitimation, Legitimacy and Legality of Law in the Chinese Legal System

The article analyzes the problems of legitimation, legitimacy and legality of law in the light of the Chinese legal system. It is noted that the above theoretical and legal categories, which have been developed in the framework of various types of legal understanding, need serious clarification, taking into account the peculiarities of the Chinese political and legal reality. From the historical point of view attention is being paid to Confucianism and Legalism, which have laid the foundations of the Chinese legal tradition and are influencing China’s law system until now. The author is examining the possibility of further updating the ancient Chinese concept of the «Heaven mandate» in modern conditions. A significant place in the article is devoted to analyzing the role of the Chinese Communist Party in giving legitimacy to the legal norms established by the legislator. The author analyses the legal nature of the program documents of the Communist Party of China, emphasizes the existence of the suggestive elements of legitimization of laws being adopted in China. In conclusion the article focuses on the process of legitimization of one of the Constellations of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which abolished the terms limits of the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, and it sums up that the constitutional amendment was legal from the formal point of view.