I recently posted Flora Sapio's excellent summary of the event organized by Ewan Smith and held at Trinity College, Oxford. Entitled China's Changing Constitution, it was held on 15 November 2018 ("China's Changing Constitution" (15 Nov. 2018, Trinity College Oxford)--Brief Proceedings).
In this post I include the "extended play" version of the remarks that I shared at that event, The Emerging Trajectories of Chinese Constitutionalism in the ‘New Era.’ The object of the remarks was to consider whether contemporary Chinese politics was downshifting constitutions and constitutionalism within the context of the evolution of the Chinese political and state system. I examined the issue through the prism of the discussion of constitutions in the Report of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress held in Beijing in October 2017. As explained in a more leisurely way below, I suggest that the issue of socialist rule of law, and socialist democracy remain substantial priorities for the CPC itself and a core policy of governance. It is also clear that the State Constitution remains a central instrument of governance. But it also becoming clearer that the fundamental constituting document of the political order is not the state constitution but the political constitution of the CPC, which provides the structures through which CPC leadership can permeate the structures of politics, law, economics and society.
The text of these remarks were made better (though all flaws remain entirely mine) by the quite insightful comments of Nick Barber. His consideration of the propositions advanced were grounded in three critical insights. The first turned on constitutionalism skepticism in the Chinese context, the second on the ways that skepticism is misplaced, and the third on why the skeptics ought to be worried (that is the right reasons for constitutionalism skepticism).
In this post I include the "extended play" version of the remarks that I shared at that event, The Emerging Trajectories of Chinese Constitutionalism in the ‘New Era.’ The object of the remarks was to consider whether contemporary Chinese politics was downshifting constitutions and constitutionalism within the context of the evolution of the Chinese political and state system. I examined the issue through the prism of the discussion of constitutions in the Report of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress held in Beijing in October 2017. As explained in a more leisurely way below, I suggest that the issue of socialist rule of law, and socialist democracy remain substantial priorities for the CPC itself and a core policy of governance. It is also clear that the State Constitution remains a central instrument of governance. But it also becoming clearer that the fundamental constituting document of the political order is not the state constitution but the political constitution of the CPC, which provides the structures through which CPC leadership can permeate the structures of politics, law, economics and society.
The text of these remarks were made better (though all flaws remain entirely mine) by the quite insightful comments of Nick Barber. His consideration of the propositions advanced were grounded in three critical insights. The first turned on constitutionalism skepticism in the Chinese context, the second on the ways that skepticism is misplaced, and the third on why the skeptics ought to be worried (that is the right reasons for constitutionalism skepticism).
