The Success of Law and Development in China

Prof. Carter, Connie
Professor of Law
Royal Roads University

After nearly 30 years of successful economic development, it is clear that law with and without Chinese characteristics has been part of the economic development story of China’s new market economy. That was also one of Premier Deng Xiaoping’s aims when he announced the four modernizations in 1978 and proceeded to pull China back from the abyss of the Cultural Revolution. What is less clear is the extent to which law has been a driver of economic development or whether the experience fits into any of the various western law and development paradigms. This paper argues that Chinese law clearly does not conform to western notions of the rule of law or democracy. Rather, it argues that Chinese law, like so much of Asian law is an instrumentalist mix of pragmatic adaptations and borrowings from both east and west which have become an autochitinuous construct that serves local or regional concepts of development. These ‘localist’ homegrown trends have been evident in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and other newly industrialized nations in Asia. Their laws are a regulatory, communitarian and authoritarian blend that gains legitimacy by being supremely transactional and pragmatic. In other words, they serve the purposes of the Asian societies in which they are fostered. There is evidence of the use of pieces of western-like law that regulate business transactions and secure a framework for social stability and a degree of certainty. But that does not necessarily indicate successful western transplants neither does it speak to the law and development paradigm. As an example, this paper discusses China’s path to protecting private businesses and private property, starting with the National People's Congress (NPC, China's parliament) 2004 revision of the constitution to include a new clause: "Citizens' legal private property is inviolable." With the constitutional recognition and protection of private property, it marked China's definitive departure from socialism.