Chinese Civil Law Codification

In order to re-establish a legal foundation after the legal nihilism of the Cultural Revolution, the People's Republic of China first set out to regulate individual areas of law through the adoption of individual legislative acts, such as the General Principles of Civil Law (1986), the Contract Law (1999) and the Property Law (2007). Several attempts at a comprehensive civil law codification initially failed. The current codification project, based on the legislation and practical experience of recent decades, is expected to result in the adoption of a comprehensive civil code in 2020.

Since the development of law in the People's Republic of China is still characterized to a great extent by the reception of continental European civil law and has, in particular, been influenced by the model of German civil law, it is a fruitful field for comparative research:

What problems arise with the application of law in China and which political or social conditions can these problems be attributed to?

How have received legal institutions been modified in comparison to their original models and what considerations support these changes?

Where a legal rule has seemingly remained unchanged in its received form, is it based on the same legislative aim and does it have the same effect in practice?