Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2013

The “Legal civil Relations” in the Rule-of-law Practice of Contemporary China

(Abstract)

Ling Bin

The Western theory of rule of law has a number of limitations. The Chinese theory of rule of law must have a deep understanding of the ideal types and general principles of legal-civil relations. The legal civil relationship is an inter subjective one between legal people and ordinary people that has emerged from the distribution of legal explanatory power. There are two “ideal types” of legal civil relations: the “passive legal-civil relations” characterized by the core of judges and lawyers and the guidance of the legal profession; and the “positive legal-civil relations” characterized by the core of judges and involving parties and the guidance of the legal profession and ordinary people. The two types of relations have caused different “microscopic judicial environments” pertaining to the legal explanatory power in specific cases and different “macroscopic situations with the rule of law” based on judicial mutual trust and rule-of-law beliefs in general. China should explore its own path of rule of law in accordance with the legal-civil relations based on its national circumstances.