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ATTORNEY ON TRIAL: WHEN LAWYERS MET PHONY LAWYERS IN REPUBLICAN BEIJING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2011

Michael Hoi-kit Ng
Michael Hoi-kit Ng
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong. E-mail ngmichaelhk@gmail.com
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Abstract

China underwent tremendous changes in social systems during the Republican period. Among these changes was the government's introduction into Chinese society of a new legal profession based on Western ideology. Relying mainly on Shanghai archival records, previous scholarship has suggested that, unlike the traditional litigation masters who had always been despised by the authorities, the new Chinese lawyers quickly rose to respectable social and economic status. However, the historical findings presented in the current article challenge this perception by showing that in a city with a more deeply rooted indigenous legal tradition and less influence from Western lawyers, as in Beijing, the new Chinese lawyers faced resistance from the legacy of the old legal culture that permeated the new system. For a considerable period of time after the establishment of the Republic, the people of Beijing still continued to hire unqualified, “phony” lawyers in lawsuits, and some of these phony lawyers had previously been litigation masters under the Qing dynasty. Although legal reform was instigated by the central government as a unified policy, its implementation was bound to vary in different regions according to the influence of the traditional legal culture. It is clear that the situation in Shanghai and other treaty ports does not represent the situation throughout the entire country, nor even in other coastal regions. Therefore, to make more sense of legal reform in China, one should evaluate the development of legal reform in a particular city or region against its social and ideological backdrop. This approach may provide insights not only into the legal reform of the Republican period, but also into the post-Mao era when once again a modern legal system based on the Western model has been introduced, this time within a socialist system.

Keywords

Chinese lawChinese lawyersBeijing history
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 25 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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Xu Xiaoqun 2008 Xiaoqun, Xu. Trial of Modernity: Judicial Reform in Early Twentieth-Century China 1901–1937. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Zhang 2004 Zhang Liyan, 张丽艳. “Tongwang zhiyehua zhi lu: minguo Shanghai lüshi yanjiu (1913–1936) 通往职业化之 路︰民国上海律师研究 (1913–1936).” Ph.D. dissertation. Huadong Shifan Daxue Jindaishi Yanjiusuo, 2004.Google Scholar
Beijing Lüshi Gonghui 1925 Beijing lüshi gonghui linian banshi baogao 1925 北京律師公會歷年辦事報告 1925.Google Scholar
Beijing Lüshi Gonghui 1927 Minguo 16 nian Beijing lüshi gonghui huiwu yuebao di 1 juan, di 1-6 hao 民國16年北京律師公會會務月報第1卷第1–6號. Beijing: Beijingshi Dang'anguan 北京市档案馆, file no. ZQ005-003-1391-96 (1927).Google Scholar
Jingshi difang Jiancha ting gonghan 1915 Jingshi difang Jiancha ting gonghan di 1170 hao 京師地方檢察廳公函第1170 號 1915. Beijing: Beijingshi Dang'anguan, danghao J181-18-5209.Google Scholar
Xingshi weiren zhuang 1920 Xingshi weiren zhuang 1920 刑事委任狀 1920. Beijing: Beijingshi Dang'anguan, danghao J65-004-1203.Google Scholar
Bourgon 2010 Bourgon, Jerome. Review of Xiaoqun Xu, Trial of Modernity: Judicial Reform in Early Twentieth-Century China, 1901–1937; Klaus Muhlhahn, Criminal Justice in China: A History; and Paul R. Katz, Divine Justice: Religion and the Development of Chinese Legal Culture. The China Quarterly 201 (2010), pp. 195–98.Google Scholar
Cartier 2002 Cartier, Carolyn. “Origins and Evolution of a Geographical Idea: The Macroregion in China.” Modern China 28:1 (2002), pp. 79–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen 2008 Chen Tong, 陈同. Jindai shehui bianqian zhong de shanghai lushi 近代社会变迁中的上海律师. Shanghai: Shanghai Cishu Chubanshe, 2008.Google Scholar
Conner 1994 Conner, Alison. “Lawyers and the Legal Profession during the Republican Period.” In Civil Law in Qing and Republican China, eds. Bernhardt, Kathryn and Huang, Philip, pp. 215–48. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conner 2007 Conner, Alison. “Chinese Lawyers on the Silver Screen.” In Cinema, Law, and the State in Asia, eds. Sidel, Mark and Creekmur, Corey, pp. 195–211. New York: Palgrave, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuma 1993 Fuma, Susumu. “Min Shin jidai no shōshi to soshō seido,” In Chūgoku kinsei no hōsei to shakai, ed. Umehara, Kaoru. Kyoto: Kyōto Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūjo, 1993.Google Scholar
Fuma 2007 Fuma, Susumu. “Litigation Masters and the Litigation System of the Ming and Qing China.” International Journal of Asian Studies 4:1 (2007), pp. 79–111. (English translation of Fuma 1993.)Google Scholar
Li 2006 Li Yan-cheng, 李严成. “Minguo lushi gonghui yanjiu (1912–1936) 民国律师公会研究 (1912–1936).” Ph.D. dissertation. Huazhong Shifan Daxue, 2006.Google Scholar
Macauley 1998 Macauley, Melissa. Social Power and Legal Culture: Litigation Masters in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng 2009 Ng H. K. Michael, 吳海傑 “Yichang gaige, butong difang, duozhong keneng: pingjie Xu Xiaoqun, Trial of Modernity: Judicial Reform in Early Twentieth Century China 1901–1937 he Chen Tong, Jindai shehui bianqian zhong de Shanghai lüshi 一場改革，不同地方，多種可能 — 評介徐小群《Trial of Modernity: Judicial Reform in Early Twentieth Century China 1901-1937》, 和陳同 《近代社會變遷中的上海律師》. Fazhishi yanjiu 15 (2009), pp. 285–93.Google Scholar
North 1990 North, Douglass C. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qiu 2008a Qiu Zhihong 邱志红, . “Minguo shiqi Beijing lushi qunti tanxi” 民国时期北京律师群体探析. Beijing shehui kexue 4 (2008), pp. 75–83.Google Scholar
Qiu 2008b Qiu Zhihong, 邱志红. “Zhaoyang Daxuyfalu jiaoyu chutan” 北京社会科学朝阳大学法律教育初探. Shi lin 2 (2008), pp. 48–57.Google Scholar
Skinner 1977 Skinner, G. William ed. The City of Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
So 2007 So, K. L. Billy. “Legitimizing New Political Order Legally: Legal Reform in Northern Song China.” In The Legitimation of New Orders – Case Studies in World History, ed. Leung, Philip Y. S., pp. 27–52. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
So 2008 So, K. L. Billy. “Between Legal Reforms of 1070s and 1990s – A Legal History Perspective.” Paper presented at the International Symposium on Social Transformation and Legal Reform. Beijing, 2008.Google Scholar
Sun 2002 Sun Huimin, 孫慧敏. “Jianli yige gaoshang de shiye: jindai Shanghai lüshi ye de xingqi yu duncuo 建立一個高尚的職業: 近代上海律師業的興起與頓挫.” Ph.D. dissertation. Taiwan Daxue Lishi Yanjiusuo, 2002.Google Scholar
Wang 1994 Wang Shen, 王申. Zhongguo jindai lüshi zhidu yanjiu 中国近代律师制度研究. Shanghai: Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Chubanshe, 1994.Google Scholar
Xu Jiali 1998 Xu Jiali, 徐家力. Zhonghua minguo lushi zhidu shi 中华民国律师制度史. Beijing: Zhongguo Zhengfa Daxue Chubanshe, 1998.Google Scholar
Xu Xiaoqun 2001 Xiaoqun, Xu. Chinese Professionals and the Republican State: The Rise of Professional Associations in Shanghai, 1912–1937. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Xu Xiaoqun 2008 Xiaoqun, Xu. Trial of Modernity: Judicial Reform in Early Twentieth-Century China 1901–1937. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Zhang 2004 Zhang Liyan, 张丽艳. “Tongwang zhiyehua zhi lu: minguo Shanghai lüshi yanjiu (1913–1936) 通往职业化之 路︰民国上海律师研究 (1913–1936).” Ph.D. dissertation. Huadong Shifan Daxue Jindaishi Yanjiusuo, 2004.Google Scholar