California Western School of Law

Fook-Lun Leung, Frankie

BOOK REVIEW
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
OF CHINA, by Albert H.Y. Chen, Butterworths Asia: Singapore, 1992.
Reviewed by Frankie Fook-Lun Leung*
As a professor of Chinese Law at an American law school, searching for
an appropriate textbook for the class' has not always been easy. This book
is therefore highly recommended. At least two leading scholars in Chinese
law have respectively made the common accusation that biased reporting has
projected a mirage of the Chinese legal system being more effective and
structurally organized than it really is.2 Any writer on contemporary
Chinese law faces the dilemma of a legal system which has been expediently
built, harboring forces which have the tendency to cause its own destruction
at the whims of its builders, principally the bureaucratic cadres and the
seemingly omnipotent Communist Party.
Chapter 2 of the 1982 Chinese Constitution contains a comprehensive list
of the rights of citizens,3 however, there is no mechanism whereby those
rights can be asserted of citizens who have been castigated as "enemies" of
the people. Their constitutional rights can be severely abrogated.4  The
author also described in significant detail the major features of the Chinese
legal system, e.g., the interaction between the Chinese Communist Party and
the State,5 the different institutions responsible for law-making,6 the rules
of legal interpretation which are different from the Common Law or Civil
Law jurisdictions,' the collegiate court system;8 the Procuratorates; 9 the
* Partner, Lewis, D'Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard, adjunct professor of Chinese Law, Loyola
Law School, Los Angeles.
1. Another book on a similar subject and published by the Nutshell Series is RALPH H.
FOLSOM ET AL., LAW AND POLITICS IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN A NUTSHELL
(1992) is too sketchy and unanalytical by comparison.
2. Stanley Lubman, Studying Contemporary Chinese Law: Limits, Possibilities and
Strategic, 39 AM. J. COMP. L. 293 (1991); William P. Alford, Seek Truth From
Facts-Especially When They are Unpleasant: America's Understanding of China's Efforts at
Law Reform, 8 U.C.L.A. PAC. BASIN L.J. 177 (1990).
3. ALBERT HUNG-YEE CHEN, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF THE PEOPLE'S
REPUBLIC OF CHINA 51 (1992).
4. Id. at 52.
5. Id. at 75-76.
6. Id. at 79-92.
7. Id. at 95-102.
8. Id. at 110-17.
9. Id. at 124-27.
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Fook-Lun Leung: BOOK REVIEW: An Introduction to the Legal System of the People's
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156 CALIFORNIA WESTERN INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
legal profession as a body of State workers; 0 among others.
The only major deficiency apparent in the book under review is that the
author relied exclusively on library-bound literature research, albeit his
research was thorough and based on primary and secondary sources, both
Chinese and English. Therefore, no reference whatsoever was made as to
how the legal system operates in practice and what accounts for the disparity
between theory and practice. For example, it would be a glaring omission
on the part of the author not to describe how, in ordinary life, Communist
cadres and party members do not treat the written codes and regulations
seriously, if they do not ignore them entirely, whenever administrative
discretion or human judgment is exercised. The same observation may be
applicable to the judges who defer in their decision-making to the bureaucrats
or party members. However, in all fairness to the author, in at least one
instance, he did warn readers that there is "a significant gap between the law-
in-the-books and the law-in-action, between enacted rules and actual
practice. "" 1
Another minor defect of this books is that although the author devoted
Chapter 2 to the legal history of traditional China, no mention was made to
the historical heritage of the traditional concepts in other chapters to illustrate
how the contemporary Chinese legal system is still heavily burdened or
influenced by traditional forces. 12  One of the continuing debates on the
contemporary Chinese legal scene is indeed whether antiquated feudalism
rather than Marxist Communism forms the cornerstone of, and exercises
pervading influences over, the legal system. 13
No doubt, detailed and up-to-date analysis of different aspects of the
contemporary Chinese legal system must continue to be sought in journal
articles.' 4 Any serious student must turn to those learned journal articles
for in-depth descriptions and observations. Nevertheless, as an introductory
text, the book under review serves a more than adequate function. It should
also provide a forum for discussion on various subjects generically subsumed
under the Chinese legal system whenever legal practitioners seek a basic
10. Id. at 130-44.
11. Id. at 152. See JAY MATHEWS & LINDA MATHEWS, ONE BILLION-A CHINA
CHRONICLE 234-52 (1983).
12. The author did briefly describe how the legal profession historically never constituted
a respected profession in traditional China. CHEN, supra note 3, at 128.
13. Frankie Fook-lun Leung, Some Observations on Socialist Legality of the People's
Republic of China, 17 CAL. W. INT'L L.J. 102 (1987). For a thorough discussion of Rule of
Law in traditional China see Karen Turner, Rule of Law Ideals in Early China? 6 J. CHINESE
L. 1 (1992); see also Goossen, An Introduction to Chinese Law: Does it Exist? What is it?
How is it Interpreted? 27 OSGOOD HALL L.J. 93 (1989).
14. See on human rights, Albert Hung-Yee Chen, Human Rights in China: A Brief
Historical Review, in HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONG KONG 176 (R. Wacks, ed. 1992); economic law,
Donald C. Clarke, Regulations and its Discontents: Understanding Economic Law in China, 28
STAN. J. INT'L L. 283 (1992); law reforms, Dicks, The Chinese Legal System: Reforms in the
Balance, CHINA QUART. 540 (Sept. 1989); legal profession, Timothy A. Galatt, Lawyers in
China: The Past Decade and Beyond, 23 N.Y.U.J. INT'L L. & POLITICS 751 (1991).
[Vol. 24
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California Western International Law Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 [1993], Art. 7
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BOOK REVIEW
knowledge. Without having to plunge into pragmatic bread-and-butter topics
like arbitration practice and investment law. 5 A little learning is certainly
a dangerous thing! Without a fundamental knowledge of the Chinese legal
system, one would argue that just reading a practitioner-oriented treatise may
lead the reader to form a distorted perspective derived oftentimes from a
misconceived attempt to analogize and extrapolate from the readers's own
ethnocentric experiences to a totally alien legal landscape.
15. Practitioner-originated books are FOREIGN TRADE, INVESTMENT AND THE LAW IN THE
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (Michael S. Moser ed., 2d ed., 1987); DOING BUSINESS IN
CHINA (William P. Streng & Allen D. Wilcox eds., 1989); HENRY R. ZHENG, CHINA CIVIL
AND COMMERCIAL LAW (1988).
1993]
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Fook-Lun Leung: BOOK REVIEW: An Introduction to the Legal System of the People's
Published by CWSL Scholarly Commons, 1993
4California Western International Law Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 [1993], Art. 7
https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cwilj/vol24/iss1/7


English

BOOK REVIEW: An Introduction to the Legal System of the People\u27s Republic of China, by Albert H.Y. Chen, Butterworths Asia: Singapore, 1992.

Lippman, Matthew

They Shoot Lawyers Don\u27t They?: Law in the Third Reich and the Global Threat to the Independence of the Judiciary

This Article is about the misunderstood relationship between the Fourth Amendment and the positive law.  It shows how state property law and other expressions of the positive law are more resilient and useful to Fourth Amendment analysis than the Court\u27s decisions of the past three decades recognize

Yeager, Daniel B.

Search, Seizure and the Positive Law: Expectations of Privacy Outside the Fourth Amendment

International Law Journal, California Western

CALIFORNIA WESTERN
INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
VOLUME 24 1993-1994 NUMBER 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARTICLES
The Case of the Castle John, or Greenbeard the Pirate?: Environmentalism,
Piracy and the Development of International Law
Samuel Pyeatt Menefee .................................... 1
International Law-Making Process in the United Nations:
Comparative Analysis of UNCED and UNCLOS III
Akiho Shibata ...................................... 17
Corporate Interdependence: The Debt and Equity Financing
of Japanese Companies
M elissa J. Krasnow ................................... 55
COMMENTS
Chapapote: Interdependence and the Liberalization of the
Oil Industry in Mexico
Kenneth D. Jensen .................................... 81
The Contemporary Legality of Unilateral
Humanitarian Intervention
Steve G. Simon ...................................... 117
BOOK REVIEW
An Introduction to the Legal System of the
People's Republic of China
Reviewed by Frankie Fook-Lun Leung ....................... 155
Cite as 24 Cal. W. Int'i L.J. __ (1993)
01993 California Western School of Law
1
International Law Journal: Table of Contents
Published by CWSL Scholarly Commons, 1993
WILLIAM C. LYNCH, A.B., LL.B., LL.M., Professor of Law
F. PHILIP MANNS, JR., B.S., J.D., Associate Professor
SCOTT S. MARKUS, B.A., J.D., Lecturer in Law
ROBERT G. MEINERS, A.B., LL.B., LL.M., Professor of Law
CARY W. MILLER, B.S., J.D., Lecturer in Law
IRWIN D. MILLER, B.B.A., J.D., Associate Professor
JOHN M. MORRIS, B.A., J.D., Lecturer in Law
LINDA H. MORTON, A.B., J.D., Associate Professor, Associate Director of Clinical Program
RONDA G. NORRIS, J.D., Lecturer in Law
JOHN E. NOYES, B.A., J.D., Professor of Law, Director of International Legal Studies Program
MARIA E. NUNEZ, J.D., Lecturer in Law
LAURA M. PADILLA, B.A., J.D., Associate Professor
HON. BERNARD E. REVAK, B.A., J.D., Lecturer in Law
J. MICHAEL ROAKE, A.B., LL.M., J.D., Lecturer in Law
KATHARINE ROSENBERRY, B.S., M.ED., J.D., Professor of Law
LESLIE B. SANDOR, B.A., J.D., Legal Writing Instructor
GLORIA L. SANDRINO, B.A., J.D., Associate Professor
JEFFREY B. SCHNEIDER, A.B., J.D., Lecturer in Law
DENNIS L. SHARP, B.A., J.D., Lecturer in Law
JANE L. SIEGEL, B.A., J.D., LL.M., Lecturer in Law
JACQUELYN H. SLOTKIN, B.A., PH.D., J.D., Legal Writing Professor
GLENN C. SMITH, B.A., J.D., LL.M., Professor of Law
JAMES A. SPENCER, B.B.A., J.D., Lecturer in Law
JAN STIGLITZ, B.A., J.D., LL.M., Professor of Law
HON. WILLIAM L. TODD, B.A., LL.B., Lecturer in Law
WINKFIELD F. TWYMAN, JR., B.A., J.D., Associate Professor
FRANCISCO X. VALDES, B.A., J.D., Associate Professor
LILIA S. VELASQUEZ, J.D., Lecturer in Law
HARRIET A. WAANDERS, J.D., Lecturer in Law
JANET M. WEINSTEIN, B.A., J.D., Professor of Law, Director of Clinical Program
MARK I. WEINSTEIN, B.A., J.D., Associate Professor
DANIEL B. YEAGER, B.A., J.D., LL.M., Associate Professor
HON. RAYMOND F. ZVETINA, A.B., LL.B., Lecturer in Law
JOLIE L. CARTIER, B.S., Director of Facilities Management
MARTHA EHRINGER, B.A., Director of Public Relations
LENORE L. FRAGA, B.B.A., C.P.A., Chief Financial Officer
LISA C. KELLOGG, B.A., J.D., Director of Career Services
KYLE C. POSTON, Executive Director of Financial Aid
DIANE SHRAGG, Registrar
2
California Western International Law Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 [1993], Art. 1
https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cwilj/vol24/iss1/1


Simon, Steve G.

The Contemporary Legality of Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention

Wacker, Raymond

Karnes, Allan

Allocation of Controlled Intangible Income Under the I.R.C. § 936 Credit: Effects of Recent Transfer-Pricing Regulations and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993

CALIFORNIA WESTERN
INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
VOLUME 23 .. . SPRNG 10 7 NUMBER 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARTICLES
They Shoot Lawyers Don't They?: Law in the Third Reich and
the Global Threat to the Independence of the Judiciary
Matthew Lippman ................................... 257
State Responsibility for Failure to Control the Export
of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Paul Rubenstein .................................... 319
ADDRESS
The Current Tendencies of Human Rights
Dr. Jorge Carpizo .................................... 373
ESSAY
NAFTA Institutional Arrangements and
Dispute Settlement Procedures
Jose Luis Siqueiros .................................. 383
NOTE
Should Government Sponsored Forcible Abduction Render Jurisdiction
Invalid? United States v. Alvarez-Machain
Jonathan E. Katz .................................. 395
1 1OOKS RECEIVED ................................... 415
Cite as 23 Cal. W. Int'l L.J. __ (1993)
01993 California Western School of Law
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International Law Journal: Table of Contents
Published by CWSL Scholarly Commons, 1993
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Carpizo, Jorge

ADDRESS - The Current Tendencies of Human Rights

Siqueiros, José Luis

ESSAY - NAFTA Institutional Arrangements and Dispute Settlement Procedures

Law Review, California Western

California Western Law Review 
Volume 30 Number 1 Article 2 
1993 
Table of Contents 
California Western Law Review 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cwlr 
Recommended Citation 
Law Review, California Western (1993) "Table of Contents," California Western Law Review: Vol. 30 : No. 1 
, Article 2. 
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cwlr/vol30/iss1/2 
This Prefatory Matter is brought to you for free and open access by CWSL Scholarly Commons. It has been 
accepted for inclusion in California Western Law Review by an authorized editor of CWSL Scholarly Commons. For 
more information, please contact alm@cwsl.edu. 
CALIFORNIA WESTERN
LAW REVIEW
VOLUME 30 FALL 1993 NUMBER 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARTICLES
U.S. Telecommunications Privacy Policy and Caller ID
Laurie Thomas Lee .......................... ...... 1
Tax Considerations in Designing Stock Transfer Agreements
Joseph W. Blackburn ................................ 61
Corporate Irresponsibility: A Return to the Back of the Bus
David Culp ..................................
NOTE
Civil RICO and Anti-Abortion Protest: Must Protestors Profit?
NOW, Inc. v. Scheidler, 968 F.2d 612 (7th Cir. 1992)
Karen Beretsky ................................
... 93
.. 119
COMMENTS
Admissibility of DNA Statistical Data:
A Proliferation of Misconception
R. Stephen Kramer ................................. 145
These are Drugs. These are Drugs Using Guns. Any Questions? An
Analysis of the Diverse Applications of 18 U.S.C § 924(c)(1)
Jamilla A. Moore .................................. 179
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BOOK REVIEW: An Introduction to the Legal System of the People\u27s Republic of China, by Albert H.Y. Chen, Butterworths Asia: Singapore, 1992.

They Shoot Lawyers Don\u27t They?: Law in the Third Reich and the Global Threat to the Independence of the Judiciary

Search, Seizure and the Positive Law: Expectations of Privacy Outside the Fourth Amendment

Table of Contents

The Contemporary Legality of Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention

Allocation of Controlled Intangible Income Under the I.R.C. § 936 Credit: Effects of Recent Transfer-Pricing Regulations and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993

Table of Contents

ADDRESS - The Current Tendencies of Human Rights

ESSAY - NAFTA Institutional Arrangements and Dispute Settlement Procedures

Table of Contents

2,052

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