China’s Transition and the Limits of the American Constitutional Perspective

Michael W. Dowdle

Friday, 16 November 2007

China’s Transition and the Limits of the American Constitutional Perspective

The standard frameworks used to evaluate constitutional systems are not well suited to exposing transitional capacity. The constitutional problems that Minxin Pei’s Trapped in Transition focuses on do not reveal the system’s eventual capacity to transcend them.

There is significant potential for constitutional development in China. The constitutional system is rapidly inter-penetrating other political and social systems within China’s civil and political environment. There has been a recent explosion in constitutional discourse across all sectors of Chinese society, giving rise to experimentation and diffusion of constitutional innovations.

We might therefore conclude that China, while deficient in many respects, also enjoys a significant capacity to find solutions for its constitutional problems.

ALSO OF INTEREST

Policy Brief

Courts as Legislators: Supreme People’s Court Interpretations and Procedural Reforms

Courts in China today often act like legislative bodies, making law by issuing interpretations of laws that are binding on the courts. The general trend in China has been towards more transparency and greater public participation in legislative law-making and administrative rulemaking processes. In contrast, the judicial interpretation process is less transparent, with significantly less room for public participation.

Download