A GJ Topics article.

Abstract

Being one of the most eminent schools of jurisprudence in Eastern Philosophy, Classical Chinese Legalism has a lot to offer to the understanding of the underlying forces which shaped East Asian legal systems even to the present day. I will comprehensively reconstruct the Legalist idea of law in three dimensions, (1) law and society, (2) law and politics, and (3) law and morality. I will refute the overtly negative and simplistic conventional readings that suggest that Legalism is merely a Legal Positivist blueprint of authoritarian statecraft. The long–neglected connections between Legalism and the cosmic order have grounded law on a particular political morality. Despite being plagued by some difficulties, the Legalists' contributions to social theory, anthropology, and procedural values are significant, even to researchers in a global era.

Recommended Citation

Ip, Eric C. (2009) "The Idea of Law in Classical Chinese Legalist Jurisprudence," Global Jurist: Vol. 9 : Iss. 4 (Topics), Article 2.
DOI: 10.2202/1934-2640.1311
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/gj/vol9/iss4/art2