The Rule of Law in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Rule of Law in China - Essay Example I venture to guess rational analysis is ill-suited to the investigation of value matters which are, after all, more instinctual than cognitive, and more emotive than logical. (Wong 12) Â  The laws of a particular country Wong says, are informed by its values, and its values are characteristic of the entire course of its history. America appears to have found many of its values, character traits, and individualism in its revolution against Britain, and in its Protestant background, while Chinas more communitarian consciousness dates back to Confucius himself. (Wong 13) Â  If this is to accuse America of linear thinking when it comes to law, Wong draws the contrast with China even deeper when he adds that Chinas loyalty to its past is not so much or only a preservation or continuation of that past through time. It is more than Imperial China, and Confucius before her, was observant and appreciative of a kind of indeterminacy and immediacy coloring human legal affairs, a very un-judicial mixing of the winds and the currents that are seated only in "human nature ("renin") and heavenly providence ("timing").." (Wong 18) Â  Thus the system of law and its associated court and police processes in China arises in a country and a people "with no history and tradition of democracy, privacy, and individualism." (Wong 20) There is instead "Qing," "Li" and "Fa" or QLF, dating from Imperial China and signifying a complex, spiritual, and markedly oriental way of understanding and approaching life which cannot be detailed here except to say that a very significant part of it is an emphasis on rites that reflect the "essence of human nature." (Wong 29) The knowledge and understanding of these presumably mystic rites and their connection with right conduct are cultivated in the individual all along by education and not by simply knowing the law.