Law of the People%27s Republic of China
The Law of the People's Republic of China, officially referred to as the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, is the legal regime of China, with the separate legal traditions and systems of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. China's legal system is largely a civil law system, although found its root in Great Qing Code and various historical system, largely reflecting the influence of continental European legal systems, especially the German civil law system in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hong Kong and Macau, the two special administrative regions, although required to observe the constitution and the basic laws and the power of the National People's Congress, are able to largely maintain their legal systems from colonial times. Since the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the country does not have judicial independence or judicial review as the courts do not have authority beyond what is granted to them by the National People's Congress under a system of unified power. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission maintains effective control over the courts and their personnel. During the Maoist period (1949–1978), the government had a hostile attitude towards a formalized legal system, because Mao and the CCP "saw the law as creating constraints upon their power." The legal system was attacked as a counter-revolutionary institution, and the concept of law itself was not accepted. Courts were closed, law schools were shut down and lawyers were forced to change professions or be sent to the countryside. There was an attempt in the mid-1950s to import a socialist legal system based on that of the Soviet Union. But from the start of the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957–1959 to the end of the Cultural Revolution around 1976, the PRC lacked most of the features of what could be described as a formal legal system. This policy was changed in 1979, and Deng Xiaoping and the CCP put into place an "open door" policy, which took on a utilitarian policy to the reconstruction of the social structure and legal system where the law has been used as useful tool to support economic growth. Proposals to create a system of law separate from the CCP were abandoned after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Under the Xi Jinping Administration, the legal system has become further subordinated to the CCP.
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