On the afternoon of May 17th, Associate Professor Du Junqiang of the School of Law delivered the 10th IHarbour Lecture on Traditional Chinese Reasoning and Its Contemporary Impact.
“What are the features of traditional reasoning in China? What kind of justice does the traditional legal system provide?” At the very beginning of the lecture, Prof. Du proposed a few enlightening questions. Then, he analyzed specific cases and introduced two types of traditional judicial reasoning, namely, “Chun Qiu Jue Yu (adjucate according to doctrines in the book of Spring and Autumn Annals)” and “Tian Li (heavenly principles) – Guo Fa (state laws) – Ren Qing (human relationship)”. He pointed out that Confucianism, Legalism and their classics exerted great impact on traditional Chinese judicial reasoning in the Qin (221 B.C. - 207 B.C.) and Han Dynasties (202 B.C. - 220 A.D.) and after. During the Qin Dynasty, Legalism dominated, so the nation was governed with extremely strict laws, causing the collapse of Qin Dynasty in only 15 years. Afterwards, rulers of the Han Dynasty learnt from the Qin example opted for Confucianism. Confucianism and its classics were applied in judicial cases, which, in history, is called “Chun Qiu Jue Yu (adjucate according to doctrines in the book of the Spring and Autumn Annals)”. The second type of reasoning was adjudicating based on “Tian Li (heavenly principles) - Guo Fa (state laws) – Ren Qing (human relationships)”, which enriched the contents of traditional Chinese judicial reasoning. In elaborating “Tian Li, Guo Fa and Ren Qing”, Prof. Du gave an in-depth analysis of their influence on adjudication in ancient times.
In concluding his lecture, Prof. Du discussed with students the impact of traditional Chinese judicial reasoning on the contemporary judiciary. He proposed several questions such as whether the courts could quote episodes from the classics, and how to deal with cases that is in violation of the law but supported by the public? His questions then led to another topic: how to apply traditional Chinese legal culture and judicial reasoning that have formed over the course of China’s history in modern society? Prof. Du mentioned that the Supreme People's Court of China has issued related judicial interpretation and instructional cases on strengthening and standardizing analysis and reasoning in adjudicative documents, which to some extent, reflects contemporary value of traditional Chinese legal culture.
