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Neoproceduralism and Its Discontents in China

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Abstract

Neoproceduralism, a legal paradigm proposed by Weidong Ji, has stirred a debate on the emphasis of the due process of law and the limits of its implications for the programmes of legal reform in contemporary China. This article aims to introduce the debate around Neoproceduralism and some of its major theoretical criticisms in Chinese legal scholarship, as commentators have criticised this paradigm on its newness, a utilitarian reading of legal processes, Westcentrism in its theoretical orientation, and the conflict between its stress on legal processes and Chinese legal-cultural traditions.

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Notes

  1. By definition, an “engaged jurist” approach suggests that a trained legal academic engages him/herself in some project outside academia and, normally, in the wider social context—an engagement made possible by utilising one’s own legal-professional knowledge to serve some greater social good, or by a direct involvement in movements towards some particular cause. This concept is inspired by Smith (1999) and Herzfeld (2010; 2016a: p.30, 36; 2016b: p.16).

  2. For instance, it won the Third Prize in the Eleventh Excellent Humanities and Social Sciences Research in Shanghai, awarded by the Shanghai Municipal Government, in December, 2012. Three years later, it won another Third Prize in the Seventh Excellent Research in Chinese Universities (Humanities and Social Sciences), awarded by the Ministry of Education in October, 2015. See Ji (1993a, 2012).

  3. See, for instance, Zhao and Ji (1984), Zhao et al. (1988). The article by Zhao and Ji (1984) was one of the first academic papers in post-Mao China to discuss the issue of law and society. It won the First Prize of Legal Scholarly Paper in China, awarded by China Law Society (zhongguo faxuehui中国法学会), in December, 1984.

  4. For a brief biography of Kawashima, see Wani (2001, p.352). For his arguments, see, for instance, Kawashima (1948, 1963, 1978).

  5. Moreover, in two articles, Ji addresses the issue of reinventing legal traditions in greater details, see Ji 2001a, 2006a. For a reconstruction of Ji’s arguments on China’s legal traditions, see Wei (2008, pp.23–5).

  6. For Suli’s more direct criticism of Ji’s Westcentrism, see Zhu 1997.

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    Xi Lin

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Lin, X. Neoproceduralism and Its Discontents in China. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 14, 503–521 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-021-00327-5

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