Chinese Legal Theory and Human Rights. Rearticulating Marxism, Liberalism, and the Classical Legal Tradition

Abstract

Does the Chinese academic discourse on human rights differ from the official one as put forward by the Chinese government? How do Chinese legal theories justify the attribution of human rights and their protection through the law in the context of an authoritarian state? Do Chinese academic theorizations on rights and the law have any capacity to influence the wider public debate in China despite the ideological constraints and censorship imposed on academics by the party in power? In order to answer these questions, this book explores the theories of law and rights by contemporary Chinese legal scholars, paying particular attention to their views on the rule of law and the explanation of rights. It investigates the ways in which legal scholars have made use of arguments from the rediscovered Chinese traditional jurisprudence, the liberal tradition, and the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist canon.