Abstract
“Fairness-leading- to- Peace”could be said to be the highest ideal of Chinese traditional legal system. There is an old Chinese saying to confirm this: “peace and harmony achieved under the Heaven is the highest achievement of the human beings”. As far as the legal system was concerned, how could we reach this ideal of fairness? The Summaries of the Four Treasures mentioned:“It is said that since the constitution of Tang legal code was based on“rituals”, when the judgments were delivered, the justice and fairness was served.” This is in fact a very profound analysis. It implies that “legal codes”,“rituals” and“fairness”were core content of The Tang Legal Codes and Their Accompanying Regulations”. And “fairness” was the object of both the“legal codes” and “Rituals” were intended to achieve. This objective was to establish a harmonious society based on a hierarchy of status and was also a characteristic feature of Chinese Legal System (also known as East Asian Sphere of Law Culture). This was very different from those of Western societies which has been based on the individual equal rights. However, there is one common ground shared by
both the East and West. That is: fairness and justice were,
to some extent, taken very seriously both by traditional
East Asian and modern West.
Keywords
Peace、justice、rituals、legal codes、Chinese Legal Systems、a hierarchy of status
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