The English version of this paper is at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=878672Chinese Abstract: 本文评价中国正式法律制度的发展，并分析其在后毛的经济改革时代所起到的作用。我们发现“权利假设”（即认为经济发展需要一种能够提供稳定和具有可预测性的财产权和合同权的理论）对于解释中国的经济发展的作用不大。English Abstract: This article assesses the development of the formal legal system in China and analyzes its role in the economy in the post-Mao reform era. We first characterize the role of law at the beginning of reform, a role that focused on running the state sector rather than on private economic activity. We then provide a timeline of the reforms in the legal system that gradually altered the mix of economic agents within the economy and increased the importance of activities outside the supervision of government administrators. The article then provides an explanation of the role of law in three prominent spheres of activity: property rights, agreements to trade goods and services, and corporate governance. The questions motivating the discussion in all three areas are whether law plays an important role, how that role has changed over time, and what the current problems are. Although the conclusions differ across areas, one common theme is that the rights hypothesis -- a line of thought holding that economic growth requires a legal order offering stable and predictable rights of property and contract -- provides little explanatory power for China.

法律在中国经济发展中的作用 (The Role of Law in China's Economic Development)

Many countries know financial consumer credit ratings, and recent years have also seen a proliferation of rating systems in relation to online platforms and in the ‘sharing economy’, such as eBay, Uber and Airbnb. In the view of many Western observers, however, the emerging Chinese Social Credit System indicates a paradigm shift compared to these former rating systems as it aims for a comprehensive and uniform social rating based on penalty and award mechanisms. By contrast, this article suggests that the evolving forms of the Chinese system should be seen as a specific instance of a wider phenomenon. Thus, it develops a framework that compares different rating systems by reference to their drafters, users, aims, scoring systems, application, use of algorithms, enforcement and accountability; it identifies shortcomings of both low and high interventionist rating systems; and it discusses a range of regulatory approaches and emerging issues that law makers should consider.

/pdf/the-chinese-social-credit-system-a-model-for-other-countries-xntggfwadv.pdf

The Chinese Social Credit System: A Model for Other Countries?

The Rise of Rise of Dispersed Ownnership: The Roles of Law and the State in the Separation of Ownership and Control. (Article Abstracts)

Is Chinese commercial law simply a copy of German and other Western commercial laws, a “mystery” that Westerns cannot understand, or an “irrelevance” given the role of culture and politics in China? This article critically discusses these three modes of understanding. It is found that, while they seem to have some initial plausibility, one also has to be aware of their shortcomings. Thus, in the understanding of Chinese commercial law, it is most appropriate to take into account all three modes, as well as their limitations. This article also suggests approaching this topic as a “bilateral process” since the understanding of Chinese law also depends on the way Chinese law-makers understand Western legal systems.

Contentious Modes of Understanding Chinese Commercial Law

Understanding the Process of Economic Change. By Douglass C. North. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Pp. vii, 187. $29.95.

China’s rapid growth in the absence of autonomous legal institutions of the kind found in the west appears to pose a problem for theories which stress the importance of law for economic development. In this article we draw on interviews with lawyers, entrepreneurs and financial market actors to illustrate the complexity of attitudes to contract, corporate and financial law and economic growth in contemporary China. In the case of product markets, we find that business relations are increasingly characterised by a mix of trust-based transacting and legal formality. Financial markets are less like their western counterparts, thanks to the preponderant role of government in asset allocation, and a lack of transparency in market pricing. Overall, China’s experience does not suggest that law is irrelevant or unrelated to growth, but that legal and economic institutions coevolve in the transition from central planning to a market economy.

Law, trust and institutional change in China: evidence from qualitative fieldwork.

China’s rapid growth in the absence of autonomous legal institutions of the kind found in the west appears to pose a problem for theories which stress the importance of law for economic development. In this article we draw on interviews with lawyers, entrepreneurs and financial market actors to illustrate the complexity of attitudes to contract, corporate and financial law and economic growth in contemporary China. In the case of product markets, we find that business relations are increasingly characterised by a mix of trust-based transacting and legal formality which is not fundamentally different from practice in the west. Financial markets are less like their western counterparts, thanks to the preponderant role of government in asset allocation, and a lack of transparency in market pricing. However, in both sets of markets we find evidence of a transition from inter-personal trust (guanxi) to impersonal transacting, and of growing demands from business and legal groups for the impartial application of legal rules and market regulations. China’s experience does not suggest that law is irrelevant or unrelated to growth, but that legal and economic institutions coevolve in the transition from central planning to a market economy.

/pdf/law-trust-and-institutional-change-in-china-evidence-from-4mnnpu7vbm.pdf

Law, Trust and Institutional Change in China: Evidence from Qualitative Fieldwork

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Law, trust and institutional change in China: evidence from qualitative fieldwork.

Law, Trust and Institutional Change in China: Evidence from Qualitative Fieldwork