News Network (Student Correspondent Li Meng, Wang Xinru, Yang Yachun and Zhao Yunchang) In the evening of October 30th, presided by Professor Zhang Jiayong of Law School, the lecture “Several Problems of the Compilation of ‘Specific Provisions of Civil Law’” was given by Professor Liang Huixing, the famous civil jurist of China, committee member of Academic Divisions from Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the Lecture Hall of Wenhong Building.
Before the lecture, Mr. Liang told the students that the contents of the lecture weren’t limited in the problems of the compilation of “Specific Provisions of Civil Law”. He hoped the students could have rigorous thinking of civil law, clear logic of civil law and thorough understanding of the compilation of “Specific Provisions of Civil Law”.
Liang Huixing pointed out that the enactment of “General Provision of Civil Law” was a political behavior of the country and the concept and the system of civil of China were formed naturally in the history. From the perspective of traditional history, the origin of civil law in China was from “Draft of Civil Code of Qing Dynasty”, to the draft of civil code of Beiyang Government and to “Civil Code of the Republic of China” (the present civil code of Taiwan District), forming a civil and commercial tradition of civil law with a structure adopted from Germany Civil Code. After the founding of New China, the first two civil codes couldn’t be compiled to real civil code due to the special political and social background. The third civil code was compiled into “General Provision of Civil Law” because of the social transformation. The legislation of each specific law benefited the perfection of the system of civil law of China and the social and political factors were also ready for the final timing of the compilation of the civil code. There were two steps of the compilation of the civil code. The first step was to compile the “General Principles of Civil Law” based on “General Provision of Civil Law”. The second step was to compile “Civil Code” based on the specific laws in force at present. The plan of the two steps were the decision of the central government which could not be changed easily. So, the compilation would follow this plan.
Then, Liang Huixing introduced the present state of the “Specific Provisions of Civil Law” and illustrated the problems of the compilation of “Specific Provisions of Civil Law” from the perspectives of the parts of succession, marriage and family, and contract. In the part of succession, “Specific Provisions of Civil Law” considered the change of the legal order of succession to make the children as the first successor for the protection of their rights. The draft didn’t adopt the widely supported theories of “special portion system” and “heritable portion” and followed the law in force at present. In this regard, Mr. Liang said, in practice, we should analysis the specific problems and be flexible because the law could not be separated from human world. In the meantime, in the draft of the part of succession, new regulation of legacy caretaker was made to avoid damage to creditor caused by the total waiver of the successors of the inherited debts. In the part of marriage and family, the draft affirmed the community property system of marital property considering the tradition of China, but it didn’t adopt the attorneyship of family matters. In the part of contract, the present draft only changed some part of Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 of the Contract Law in force at present. And, it was a matter which needed to be explored that, with the development of the society and economics, whether new types of contracts should be added to the law. Currently, partnership contract, franchise contract, security agreement and so on had already been added in the draft. Whether to increase the other contract types was still undecided. Mr. Liang pointed out that the coordination of the part of contract and “General Provision of Civil Law”was an important issue to be dealt with in the compilation.
The students participated in the Q&A part with great enthusiasm raising questions about the legislation adoption of the scholars’ suggestions, the effects of the civil code on the academic research of the young scholars and so on. Mr. Liang answered each question and said that the more suggestions raised for the national legislation by the scholars, the more options the country had. However, once the law was made, the scholars should respect the choice of the country, rethink the problems of their own opinions and understand the rationality of the national legislation. It was certain for the scholars to insist to their opinions when it comes to matters of principle. The theoretical knowledge of law was important but the stability of Chinese society and the rejuvenation of China were more important.