I. Introduction

On May 28, 2020, in its third session, the 13th National People’s Congress (hereinafter the “NPC”) adopted the Chinese Civil Code (hereinafter the “CCC”). The CCC represents a milestone in the modernization of the Chinese socialist legal system. China uses the continental legal system, where the codification of laws is a key attribute. Though seemingly paradoxical, the CCC is the first codified law in China — except for the Six Codes promulgated by the Kuomintang, for which legal drafters of that era modeled on European legal codes. The CCC is also the hard-won result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (hereinafter the “CPC”) political commitment to such codification. During its 19th National Congress, the CPC declared the codification of the CCC an important step in Chinese people’s pursuit of a better life, as well as in the promotion of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.

While civil codes like the French Civil Code of 1804, the German Civil Code of 1896, and the Japanese Civil Code of 1898, have all left a brilliant mark in history, China’s new Civil Code, as the world’s youngest, benefits from its late-mover advantage. That is to say, by making multiple innovations in accommodation to the 21st-century technologies, the CCC reflects the high-tech era. This note aims to present the CCC as pioneering a new generation of civil codes in a high-tech era. It is organized under three sections: The first section revisits the history of the codification of civil law in China, addressing its genesis and development. The second section focuses on the innovations introduced in the CCC in response to the high-tech era. The third section concludes the note with potential lessons to be learned from China’s civil law codification, which constitute key takeaways for jurisdictions either in the process of adopting a new civil code, or revising it. ation of “high-tech era” civil code that adopted multiple innovations and accommodated a quest of the technology-questions of the 21st century.

This note is organized under three basic sections. The first section of this note tries to revisit the history of the codification of civil law in China and responds to questions concerning the historical episode of the genesis and development of the codification of the Chinese civil law. The second section of this note focuses on the innovations reflected on the new CCC as a result of decades of legislative and judicial practice on civil law legislation and adjudication in China. Thus, the unique attributes of the CCC as a generation of “high-tech era” civil code will be analyzed. The third section is the lessons entertaining section that introduces the key takeaways for jurisdictions that either adopts a new civil code or revise the same. Last but not least, some concluding remarks and policy observations will end up the issues of the paper.