Mixed Reception in the Law of Secured Credit: An Analysis of the Prospects of Resolving Doctrinal Incompatibility Based on the Chinese Approach to the Priority of Multiple Assignments

Abstract

The Chinese approach to determining priority among multiple assignments is drawn from German, American, and Japanese models (with the latter reflecting the French model prior to 2016, from a European perspective). Using this example, this article attempts to better understand the emergence of mixed legal reception, concluding that the development of Chinese security law has been characterized by a gradual reception of UCC Article 9. Since Chinese civil law has traditionally been strongly oriented toward German law (even more so recently), the German way of thinking has held immense sway over Chinese decision-makers and their advisors and made law-making in China more difficult. In view of the gaps in the rules on priority, it is to be expected that on security in movables, Chinese law will continue to align itself with UCC Article 9. The tendency in Chinese discourse to simplify foreign regulatory systems shows that reception does not necessarily accelerate the borrowing country’s learning process, and awareness of problems only arises through having to decide concrete domestic disputes.