Law expert's civil code dream is coming true

CHONGQING－The adoption of China's first Civil Code stirs emotions of pride and excitement for Jin Ping, who has spent his most passionate years preparing for the long-anticipated law.

The 98-year-old law professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing worked on the expert groups who attempted to draft a civil code several times over the past 60 years.

"The civil code has been my obsession my whole life," Jin said.

On May 22, Chinese lawmakers started deliberating on the draft of the Civil Code at the annual session of the 13th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature. The NPC adopted the draft on May 28, and the Civil Code will take effect at the start of next year.

Jin has studied civil law for nearly his entire life. Though he did not participate in the preparation of the most recent draft, many of his students did.

The Civil Code has six parts－real rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and tort liabilities, in addition to general and supplementary provisions.

As lawmakers deliberated on the code in Beijing, Jin pored over the pages of the draft at his home in Chongqing. "Many of my students are continuing the job that I didn't finish. This is especially comforting to me," he said. "I feel like I am still working for its adoption."

The legislation is expected to further refine China's basic legal system and rules of conduct in the civil and commercial fields. A major innovation of China's Civil Code, jurists say, is embodied in the personality rights section, which includes provisions on a person's rights to life, body, health, name, portrait, reputation and privacy, among others.

China's four earlier attempts to draft a civil code, dating back to the 1950s, did not succeed for various reasons. Jin is the last expert alive who participated in the first three attempts to draft the code.

"It was a blessing for me to be able to see the deliberation of the civil code and its adoption," he said. "This has been the pursuit of generations of civil lawmakers."

Born in 1922 in Anhui province, Jin lived through the revolutionary period. In 1945, as schools reopened after China won the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Jin studied law at university.

Nine years later, he became a law teacher. During that same year, the first session of the 1st National People's Congress was convened and the People's Republic of China's first Constitution was enacted. Jin was chosen to be one of the law experts working on drafting the civil code.

"I didn't know why a young teacher like me was chosen. But over the years I've come to realize that the Chinese leaders were aware that lawmaking was not easy," Jin said. "They were making plans and preparations in advance to train talent for future legislative needs.

"Teachers from law schools, judges and researchers joined the draft work. We did a lot of field work. For example, we went to many cities to conduct surveys for drafting the inheritance law."

The newly adopted Civil Code has systematically integrated existing civil laws and regulations, modifying them to adapt to new realities.

"When my students called me, telling me that the draft civil code would be deliberated, I was overjoyed. But I also told them that they still have a bigger mission," Jin said. "The deliberation marks a good beginning, but laws need to be improved and updated, and the Civil Code should be able to better serve the people.

"It's no easy task to formulate a good law, and it's even more important to make it understood by the public and be enforced effectively. The practice of the rule of law shall never stop."

Xinhua