Civil code milestone for rule of law

For the first time in the history of the People's Republic of China, a complete civil code is expected to be introduced to govern legal disputes other than those involving crimes. This is undoubtedly a milestone in the development of China's rule of law.

The importance of having a complete civil code cannot be overstated. However wealthy a country is or however comprehensive its national strength is, a lack of protection of basic civil rights and private rights of every individual citizen constitutes an Achilles heel for its social foundation.

That explains why the draft of a civil code to be deliberated at a bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee this week is being greeted as a major step forward for the modernization of China's governance.

Importance has been attached to the compiling of the civil code to provide a stable legal framework for resolving disputes since not long after the People's Republic of China was founded. And China has bits of one, such as laws on inheritance, contracts and property. But there are gaps and inconsistencies. The compilation of a unified code was launched four times, in 1954, 1962, 1979 and 2001, but a complete code never came to fruition for various reasons.

To compile a complete civil code that meets the needs of the times is obviously no easy task. As a result, the process that is now coming to fruition has proceeded piecemeal since the middle of the last decade, with the initial step, the general provisions of the civil code, completed and adopted at the fifth session of the 12th NPC in 2017.

Preliminary deliberation of the six other sections on property, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and torts was done at the fifth session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee in 2018, which marked the second step of the process.

Public opinions were then extensively solicited from people in different walks of life, and suggestions from different government departments were also taken into consideration. Fact-finding missions were also conducted for the fixing of specific articles before the draft civil code was completed.

Now the draft is being deliberated by lawmakers at the bimonthly session of the NPC Standing Committee being held from Monday to Saturday. Hopefully their deliberations will lead to draft code being delivered to the annual session of the NPC in March. It should then not be far for Chinese people to have recourse to the law to protect their rights in any civil dispute.