Abstract
Scholars have debated whether “customary law” existed in Qing Dynasty China, leading to different stands and arguments between “societal-centric” and “legal-centric” views. This issue involves disputes in the definition of terms and the recognition of historical facts by researchers. This paper primarily focuses on some commercial litigation cases in the Jiangnan region (the Lower Yangzi Delta) of the Qing Dynasty, narrowing the issue of “customary law” to the evolution of the interaction between Qing Dynasty commercial customs and national law. The paper argues that while we may not need to describe this evolution in terms of “customary law” as understood in European legal scholarship, we should not overlook the specific processes in various industrial and commercial towns of the time, where “customary practices” transformed into “customary rules”. Keywords: Merchant Groups, Legal Experts, Customary Rules, Customary Law
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