published_or_final_version / abstract / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

Under every regime, marriage is one of the essential factors to affect the development of a country. Before the Tang Dynasty, the divorce system was already practiced in the Chinese society due to the long lasting ancient rites. In ancient China, ‘qichu’ and ‘yijue’ were the typical and traditional divorce ways, but not under the legal system. Under these systems, women got divorce with no consent always happened. The low status of women under the divorce system was obvious. In Tang Dynasty, the ancient feudal law with perfect contents was existed, which was ‘The Tang Law Dredges Opinion’. It innovated the marriage law in the Chinese history. Apart from the ‘qichu’ and ‘yijue’ divorce system, the ‘divorce with consent’ system is an important part of marriage law to show the status of women improved to some extent in Tang Dynasty. Under ‘divorce with consent’ system, women had the right to take the initiative to dissolve the marriage relationship. Based on the historical records and materials, such as ‘releasing wife book’, poems and epitaphs in Tang Dynasty, this paper would analysis the reality of practicing the ‘divorce with consent’ system and the influence of this system about the women’s status in Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, the reasons about the Tang emperors established this system also reflected the rise of women’s status in the certain extent, for instances, economic, political and cultural aspects. The paper contains two parts. The first part focuses on the practice about the traditional divorce systems before the Tang Dynasty. The historical course about the change of names on the divorce systems is briefly recorded. The practice about ‘qichu’, ‘yijue’ and ‘divorce with consent’ system are analyzed by the historical materials before Tang Dynasty in order to show the difference about the women’s status in the second part. The second part mainly focuses on analyzing ‘divorce with consent’ system in Tang Dynasty with the women’s relationship. The ‘releasing wife book’, poems and epitaphs is going to demonstrate the practice of the ‘divorce with consent’ system. This part would analyze the structure and content of the ‘releasing wife book’ in details. The words and procedures reflect the characteristics about women under the law of marriage. Besides, the Tang emperors set up the ‘divorce with consent’ system also had the consideration about their ruling. These specific concerns had close relationship with the legal marriage system. Therefore, women’s status must be affected by their ruling policy undoubtedly. / published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Law / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Carlos Wing-hung Lo. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1984 / Bibliography: leaves 218-233

白智剛. / 手稿本, 複本據手稿本複印 / 論文(歷史學部哲學頭士)--香港中文大學,1988. / 參考文獻:leaves 1-10 (3rd group) / Bai Zhigang. / 〈前言〉 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一章 --- 刑獄制度的建立 --- p.3 / Chapter 一 --- 刑獄制度的轉變 --- p.3 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 立法概況 --- p.3 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 司法機構 --- p.8 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 對司法官員的限制 --- p.16 / Chapter 二 --- 立法精神 --- p.25 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 體恤人民 --- p.25 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 留心吏治 --- p.29 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 因應需要 --- p.32 / 〈注釋〉 --- p.36 / Chapter 第二章 --- 州縣司法的實際情況 --- p.64 / Chapter 一 --- 治獄的程序 --- p.64 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 投案 --- p.64 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 驗獄 --- p.73 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 審問 --- p.81 / Chapter 〈四〉 --- 囚禁 --- p.85 / Chapter 二 --- 冤獄的形成 --- p.91 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 交差塞責 --- p.91 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 貪汙舞弊 --- p.94 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 私仇興訟 --- p.96 / 〈注釋〉 --- p.103 / Chapter 第三章 --- 中央與地方刑獄的關係 --- p.127 / Chapter 一 --- 中央與地方的連繫 --- p.128 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 宋初政局與強幹弱枝政策 --- p.128 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 刑法權收歸中央 --- p.133 / Chapter 二 --- 州縣司法的特質 --- p.136 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 地域上的分別 --- p.136 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 人事上的差異 --- p.143 / 〈注釋〉 --- p.160 / 〈結語〉 --- p.188 / 〈附錄〉一 --- p.192 / 〈附錄〉二　 --- p.219 / 〈附錄〉三 --- p.224 / 〈徵引書目〉 / 〈撮要〉

Of the many and varied institutions which make up a particular culture or society, enabling it to survive and prosper, and judgement as to relative importance or significance is perhaps impossible. Yet it is difficult to deny that law, defined in its broadest sense, with its accompanying legal institutions, normally plays a significant role. To the historian dealing with ancient history, the Code of Hammurabi, the Russkais Pravda of Yaroslavi the Wise, the Laws of Manu, and the Acts of the Saxon Kings are documents of immense importance. They portray in clear terms property relationships, behavior patterns, and class structure. In addition, however, they represent value judgements. Each prohibition, each effort to provide restitution for injury, each rule governing the conduct of the individual or the group, rests implicitly on a positive “ought”. Each era, historically speaking, makes ethical judgements which are enshrined in law. The historical entity which we label the “Chinese civilization” is no exception. As one uniquely qualified observer has noted, “A county could not possibly have lasted so long without sound legal principles as her foundation and without having continually drunk from the life-giving fountain of justice to perpetually renovate herself.”1 It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the Chinese legal system not only was the third earliest historically, preceded so far as is known only by the Egyptian and that of Mesopotamia, but also had the unique distinction of being the only ancient system that survived continuously to the 20th century.2 In this study an attempt has been made to paint a broad picture of the role of law in Chinese society down through the centuries of Chinese recorded history. The similarities and contracts particularly the latter, between the structure of function of law and legal institutions in Western civilizations and those in China are investigated. The role of the almost indefinable “li” and its never-ending struggle with the forces of positive law are surveyed. Beginning with the development of law in ancient and feudal China, and the, historically speaking, early conflict between the Confucianists, exponents of the “li”, and the Legalists, advocates of positive law, the study proceeds to an historical survey of the sources of positive law, from the classic texts through the unbroken line of codes. An attempt is made to analyze the apparent lack of a clear distinction in Chinese laq between the civil and the criminal aspects, seemingly so “foreign” to Western thinking. FInally, the Westernization of Chinese law in 20th century is described, concluding with some tentative observations of the developing structure of law in Communist China and the difficulties faced by a society attempting to reconcile its role as historical heir to the “li” - “law” dichotomy and political heir to Marxist legal theories.

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

No description available.

Ever since the judicial reform in late Qing, all aspects linking to China law reforms were forced to be aligned with the national goal of abolishing the unequal treaties between China and foreign powers. Forty years' legal history, as the epochal era in shaping the modern Chinese legal system, became an integral part of history of the national movement against unequal treaties. Within the period where Ju Zheng was dominant in the sphere of law, the judiciary under party control and the nation-wide discussions on China new legal system were two successive processes of the national movement: the former was meant to create solidarity and political space needed for the anti-unequal-treaties movement, and the latter was measured to offer cultural continuity and identity consensus essential for national autonomy en course toward modernity. What's more, nationalism became the overarching ideology in legal sphere during Ju's times, and its repercussions helped foment a solid legal nationalization movement. This movement was embodied in organizations at the national level, namely the National Conference of Justices and the National Association in Jurisprudence of Republic of China. Second, the movement has two essential features: Party control over the judiciary and building of a new Chinese legal system. In this legal nationalization movement, Ju Zheng was the central figure and leader from the beginning right through the end. / For more than sixteen years (1932-1948) Mr. Ju Zheng was the most influential figure of the national judiciary under the Nanjing Regime, making the case of his legal thoughts and practices highly illustrative of the legal history of modern China. Building on Mr. Ju's personal background and experiences, this thesis attempts to foster a better understanding of Ju Zheng and his era in terms of legal history. / This thesis consists of five chapters: The first chapter introduces the scope of inquiry, the main themes of the study, the sources and the literature on this subject. Next chapter documents Ju Zheng's efforts in tackling the problems of Supreme Court inherited from his predecessors during his first three years in the key position of the judiciary. The third Chapter deals with the process of party control over the judiciary. In hindsight, this process went through two stages: first, it was a project to revolutionize the justices which ended up making most judges party members; the atmosphere of the next stage manifested in an article of Ju Zheng which called attentions to efficacious partisan indoctrinations and to ground nationalism as the guideline for the justices. This process of intermingling of the judiciary and the party did generate some positive results. For instance, it created a vigorous nation-wide movement to seek abolition of the unequal treaties with foreign powers, which later on undergirded the judicial pattern of deciding amnesty cases by Ju Zheng judiciary. Chapter four explores the legal nationalization movements initiated from the National Conference of Justices in the year of 1935, vividly epitomized in the following nation-wide discussions in 1930s and 1940s on how to create a new legal system embedded in China context. The discussions eventually converged to two distinct lines: the first line claimed that it was the long-lasting Chinese culture (zhong guo gu you) that was to become the starting-point for a new legal system; in contrast, the second line argued for "rebuilding" (chong xin jian li ) a new legal system for the modern China. The last chapter offers a few concluding remarks. / 江照信. / Adviser: Billy So Kee-long. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2184. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-190). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Jiang Zhaoxin.