The Chinese Constitutional Order and the Openness to Western Legal  Models: a Difficult Compromise 

Abstract: This essay investigates the evolution of the Chinese constitu tional and civil law system in the context of its complex relationship with  Western legal traditions. The study adopts an external, non-partisan per spective to identify the singularities of the Chinese legal experience, with out falling into the simplifications often produced by comparative meth ods biased toward Western liberal-democratic assumptions.  The research begins with a historical reconstruction of China’s constitu tional development, tracing its trajectory from the 1954 Constitution,  through the radical negation of formal legality during the Cultural Rev olution, to the relative institutional stabilization inaugurated by the  1982 Constitution. Subsequent constitutional amendments, particu larly the 1993, 1999, 2004, and 2018 reforms, are examined to high light the country’s economic growth in the framework of “socialism  with Chinese characteristics.”  

The second part of the study turns to the codification of private law,  focusing on the 2020 Chinese Civil Code, which represents a landmark  in the country’s legal modernization. The analysis reveals that private  property, although formally elevated to a position of equality with state  and collective property, remains embedded in a normative framework  that subordinates individual entitlements to collective welfare and state directed economic policy.  

Finally, the essay addresses the judicial architecture of the People’s Re public of China, exploring the persistent subordination of the judiciary  to Party oversight and the limited autonomy of individual judges, de spite textual references to independence in the 1982 Constitution and  the Judges Law. Mechanisms of hierarchical supervision and the prac tice of ex post “legal review” by higher courts or Party organs illustrate  the primacy of political considerations over the stability and finality of  judgments, revealing a functional conception of legality that privileges  flexibility over predictability.  

Keywords: Chinese Constitutional Law; Civil Code; Market Socialism;  Judicial Independence; Comparative Legal Systems