China, democracy, and law : a historical and contemporary approach / edited by Mireille Delmas-Marty and Pierre-Étienne Will ; with a foreword by Philip A. Kuhn ; translated by Naomi Norberg.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Despotism, "democratic China" and nineteenth-century European / Pierre-Etienne Will -- Seeds of democracy in the Confucian tradition / Anne Cheng -- Checking abuses of power under the Ming dynasty / Pierre-Etienne Will -- The principle of legality and legal rules in the Chinese legal tradition -- The emergence of a community of jurists in the late imperial and early republican periods (1740-1930) / Jerome Bourgon -- The appropriation of the concept of "liberty" at the end of the Qing dynasty : beginning with the interpretation of Kant / by Liang -- The first democratic experiment in China (1908-1914) : Chinese tradition and local elite practices / Xiaohong Xiao-Planes -- Constitutions and constitutionalism : trying to build a new political order (1908- -- 1949) / Xiaohong Xiao-Planes -- The Chinese contribution to the universal declaration of human rights / Pierre-Etienne Will -- Anti-tradition and democracy in China at the start of twentieth century : national culture and the crisis of the nation-state / Yves Chevrier -- Elusive democracy (1915-1937) / Yves Chevrier -- Servant, bogeyman or goddess : democracy in the discourses of power and dissidence in China -- Instituting the rule of law in china in the context of globalization / Mireille Delmas-Marty -- Law and society in contemporary China / Stephanie Balme -- China's accession to the WTO and legal reform : towards the rule of law via internationalization without democracy? / Leila Choukroune -- The renaissance of the legal profession in China / Jean-Pierre Cabestan ... [and others] -- Democracy under one-party rule? on village and Canton elections in China / Gunter Schubert -- The Democratic Experience and Election Culture on Taiwan / Fiorella Allio.

This landmark volume deals with such essential questions as: What points of departure, or resources, can be identified in Chinese history and culture for what we call 'democracy'? What are, and have been, their potential for development in a modern China confronted with powerful Western influences? Are there any connections between imperial China{u2019}s strong legal tradition and the PRC{u2019}s current endeavour to restore the rule of law, in a context of legal globalization in which China itself is an important participant? How serious, or superficial, should the political opening which started in the 1980s be regarded, and the discourse on human rights currently heard in official circles? And finally, how relevant is Taiwan{u2019}s experiment with democratic institutions? In this rich and inspiring volume, foremost French scholars carefully clarify the process of political and legal change, convincingly showing that these questions cannot be answered without a proper understanding of centuries of Chinese juridical, philosophical, religious and political thought. Ouvrage publié avec le soutien du Centre national du livre/ Published with financial support by the Centre national du livre.