Renmin law faculties offer public lectures on the Civil Code

• Author: Wang Bihui
• Position: (???) Post-graduate in Civil and Commercial Law, Renmin Law School, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Contact: summerwang1997@ruc.edu.cn
• Pages: 506-509

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 15 DECEMBER 2020 NO. 4

DOI 10.3868/s050-009-020-0028-4

ACADEMIC NEWS

RENMIN LAW FACULTIES OFFER PUBLIC LECTURES ON THE CIVIL CODE

Renmin University of China Law School (Renmin Law School) and Baidu, jointly

produced 12 public lectures, from May 28 to June 3, 2020, in order to fully interpret the

meaning and impact of the newly legislated Civil Code. These lectures have been

delivered by 10 outstanding civil law professors, including WANG Liming, WANG Yi,

GAO Shengping, LONG Yifei, SHI Jiayou, ZHU Hu, YANG Lixin, YAO Hui, SUN

Ruojun and ZHANG Xinbao. They have disclosed the spirit and Chinese characteristics

embodied in the Civil Code, thus interpreting major changes within the civil law system,

and its impact on people’s daily life.

The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), was adopted at the 3rd

Session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress (NPC) of the PRC on May 28, 2020,

and will come into force on January 1, 2021. The Civil Code is the first law that was

termed “the Code” since the foundation of PRC. This created a precedent for the

codification and legislation of code in China. There are 1,260 articles in total. In addition

to general and supplementary provisions, the Civil Code includes six chapters on Real

Rights, Contracts, Personality Rights, Marriage and Family, Succession, and Tort

Liability.

The promulgation of the Civil Code has undergone a long process. Before the

“General Principles of Civil Law” was enacted in 1986, the Civil Code had been codified

three times, yet was stranded, since the economic conditions were not mature. When

Professor WANG Liming participated in the “Three-Person Talk” Event on the Civil

Code, sponsored by Procuratorate Daily, he explained that “The Civil Code is the

fundamental law of the market economy and can only be produced on the soil of the

market economy. At that time, a highly centralized planning system was implemented.

The basic rules of civil law are difficult to be shaped, and even if they are written out, it is

hard to produce a marked effect.”1 Although many attempts were unsuccessful, early

civil law legislative activities and achievements had laid an important foundation for the

compilation of the current Civil Code.

In 1986, the “General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China”

was enacted, which outlined the civil law, as formulated for urgent and relevant problems,

1 XU Jianbo, GONG Yunfei, GUAN Shixin, The Birth of the Civil Code in the New Era, Procuratorate

Daily, Apr. 6, 2020.