Regime-Centered and Court-Centered Understandings: The Reception of American Constitutional Law in Contemporary China†

Abstract

Abstract American constitutional law haunts the contemporary Chinese constitutional imagination. China’s reception of American constitutional law occurred in two major stages. In the first stage, which spanned from the 1980s to the early 1990s, Chinese intellectuals understood American constitutionalism as a particular political regime to be politically criticized or objectively appraised, with the tripartite separation of powers overwhelmingly highlighted as a core feature of the American constitutional-political system. In the second stage, which began in the late 1990s, a paradigmatic shift from a political, regime-centered perspective to a legalized, court-centered approach occurred in China’s introductions to and studies of American constitutionalism. The U.S. Supreme Court and the concept of judicial review now primarily preoccupy most Chinese constitutional minds; these features of the American system have formed the focal points of reference for Chinese constitutional reform. This shift from the first stage to the second reflects both ideological and social changes since the economic reform in China, as well as international impacts.