Gérard Tavernier,

Foundation Administrator, member of the Jury for the best thesis on China, Honorary Counsel

Several articles published by the Foundation for Continental Law indicated the respective weight, in terms of the population they govern, of various major legal systems in the world. The Foundation was born, moreover, from comments which arose during the bicentennial observance of the French Civil Code and the conviction that legal rules defined in France at the beginning of the 19^th century and adopted by many countries on the five continents remained fundamentally well suited to the organization and proper functioning of these societies. Successive contributions to the initial set of laws, oftentimes positive, occurred in several countries, particularly in Germany, France and Switzerland.  But changes to law did not alter the feeling of community felt by  the legal professionals who implemented these rules..

Now that China, on March 15, 1999, has adopted contract law clearly inspired by civil law, theirconviction of thecoherence and success of this system of rules prompted a visit to Paris in 2000 by Mr. Cao Jianming’s , at the time Vice-president of the Supreme Court of the People’s Republic of China (1).Prime Minister Mr. Jiang Zemin had tasked him with the mission to formulate and start implementing a reform project for the training and mobilization of Chinese legal institutions, still recovering from the Cultural Revolution, and proved the project with significant intital funding (2). The choice among legal systems, especially including legislative ones, was naturally a major issue.

During a fascinating meeting with Mr. Jianming and some of the partners of the firmwhich I led at that time (3), , I presented him with our own “little red book” (4) and we discussed, with commentary on its most frequently cited section, Article 1382,,  :

- The unifying role that this text, wonderfully well written and easily understandable by judges and litigants, has played  over the years in harmonizing the rules applied in those countries  with regard to civil liability,

- The scope it leaves to a judge to adapt the law as laid out to the specific cases tha come before him, as illustrated by dozens of pages of jurisprudence cited in this Article.

Our young and brilliant visitor, already well informed,saw in concrete terms the usefulness of this approach to his assignment and requested that we provide him with a proposal (5). In the absence of comprehensive help from national governments(6), various legal institutions of the continental law system (7) became involved in cooperative projects (8) for the implementation of new codified rules as well as for training programs. Despite a few setbacks, the cooperation among universities has been growing over time, though we would like to see the quantity and quality of these exchanges improve.

The award granted by the Foundation for Continental Law, for the first time this year, for the best legal thesis on a subject addressing the development and outlook for development of Chinese law, in all fields, is a constructive and positive step toward the mutual understanding of the legal problems specific to the countries in question  in the subject areas addressed in the thesis. Four were presented to the jury (9), three defended in France and one in Great Britain. They ranged in quality but in general were very in depth, highlighting the value of the comparative legal research conducted and the encouragement given to China to adopt certain legal rules or practices arising mostly (but not exclusively) from continental law. The thesis defended in Paris by Mr. Li Bin was clearly the best one. Let’s hope that in the years to come, we will see work of comparable quality.

A legal professional from continental Europe reading the various laws adopted by China since the beginning of this century, will them quite familiar, particvularly:

- The law on corporations of October 27, 2005 which includes concepts and institutions much closer to those systems in place in continental Europe than the Hong Kong model,

- The law on property of March 16, 2007, which took effect on October 1, 2007, a law on which French notaries had been consulted,

-The law on employment contracts of June 29, 2007, which took effect on April 1, 2008.

It is obvious that, given China’s great rise to power and the historical observation that legal rules must generally evolve toward those adopted by the most important political and economic power, the continental law countries understand their interest in multiplying their exchanges with Chinese legal professionals so that their country’s rules are defined by reference to, or evolve toward, their own legal principles.                                                             ________________

(1) He is today President of Chinese Court System.

(2) Over 200 million Francs.

(3) Gide Loyrette Nouel.

(4) The Civil Code in the Dalloz edition, in the small format of that time.

(5) The scope of the proposed task, proved to be too daunting: participating in the training of over 200,000 judges!!

(6) What we understood with regard to France given the scope of the task and the Chancellery’s available funds and staff.

(7) Including Canadian.

(8) One of the most successful projects is the creation by French Notaries of a Notary school in Shanghai and regular visits by French Notaries to various Chinese cities to present the manner in which they provide, through their services, certainty and transparency to transactions. In addition, the French Notaries were consulted by China regarding the implementation of recent texts related to property transfers.

(9) Two Chinese academics and two French legal professionals including Professor Michel Grimaldi, President of the Jury.