A senior legislative official yesterday pledged to closely examine opinions from across the community, including advice from legal experts based at home and abroad in a bid to provide a better civil code for the country.
"We welcome all kinds of commentary on the draft civil code and are ready to conduct in-depth research into comments and criticism," said Wang Shengming, vice-director of the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, at an international symposium on the draft civil code of China, which opened yesterday in Lijiang, Southwest China's Yunnan Province.
The draft civil code was submitted to senior legislators at the end of last year for preliminary reading.
The symposium, attended by more than 50 leading Chinese and Japanese scholars of civil law, was part of a move by Wang's commission to solicit more feedback from legal experts.
The two-day symposium focused on the structure of the draft civil code and critical issues concerning provisions on personal rights, tangible properties, obligations and torts.
"We expect China's future civil code to be a transparent one with a structure that is clear at a glance and contains easy wording," said Eiichi Hoshino, a professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo and a member of the Japan Academy.
Zentaro Kitagawa, professor of law at Meijo University and professor emeritus of Kyoto University, said he expects China to come up with a creative civil code that can be applied to newly emerging challenges, such as the legal status of sperm and the information technology industry.
"All countries around the world are facing these problems," he said. "I hope China can share its experience with the world."
Wang Yi, associate professor of the Peking University Law School, said the civil code should offer a judging criterion for judges and a guideline for citizens.
"It should also make some declarative provisions such as placing an emphasis on the protection of human rights," he added.
China has set up a goal of creating a comprehensive legal system, with specific Chinese characteristics by 2010. The endorsement of a civil code is a major step in accomplishing the task.
The symposium was jointly sponsored by Wang's commission, the Law School of Renmin University and the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
(China Daily March 28, 2003)
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