Durchsetzung, Ausnutzung und Umgehung von Rechtsnormen in China

Abstract

Implementation, abuse and circumvention of legal norms in China

The article offers a fresh perspective on the well-known deviation between the black letter law and legal reality in the People’s Republic of China. Adopting as a starting point surveys on compliance with legal norms and examples from legal and business practice, the article illustrates how the actively portrayed adherence to legal norms by state and citizens very often gives away to opportunistic strategies. The author analyses the implementation, abuse and circumvention of legal rules against the backdrop of a loss of traditional societal mechanisms ensuring legal conformity and the variety of state-implemented measures of social control seeking to fill this gap. He identifies fundamental contradictions of historic, cultural, political and institutional origin whereby one finds a high expectation of regulatory problem-solving by the state alongside a low level of acceptance of legal rules among the citizenry. The article concludes with explanatory remarks on the issues examined and endeavours to assess the possible success of the newest state measures on social control.