A “New Era” of Chinese Law? Xi Jinping Legal Thought and Chinese Legal Studies

Xi Jinping Legal Thought (习近平法治思想) was officially announced as the “leading ideology” of Chinese law and legal studies in November 2020. Since 2021, then, all students of law and related subjects in China have been assigned compulsory classes in Xi Jinping Legal Thought. Moreover, law schools are required to let Xi’s theories “permeate” all other classes of their curriculum. In order to be able to teach such courses, all law professors and lecturers are demanded to participate in a centralized training in Xi Jinping Legal Thought.
Xi Jinping Legal Thought can be understood as the juristic version of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” (习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想). This thought system constitutes the newest element of Sinomarxism (中国化(马)克思主义), the so-called “sinicized” and thus significantly altered form of Marxism. Xi Jinping Thought was included in the CCP Statute in 2017 and the Constitution in 2018, complementing the other main elements of “Marxism with Chinese characteristics”: Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Jiang Zemin’s “Important Thought of Three Represents”, and Hu Jintao’s “Scientific Outlook on Development.”
Xi claims to lead China—including Chinese law and Chinese (legal) academia—into a “new era” (新时代). Indeed, Xi has introduced a large number of new, often numerical concepts, such as the “four comprehensives,” “consciousnesses,” and “self-consciousnesses,” the “twelve socialist core values,” or the “ten,” “eleven,” and “fourteen upholds.” They all shall contribute to the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and thus realize Xi’s “China Dream.”
These concrete topoi notwithstanding, Xi continues the four basic paradigms of traditional Sinomarxist jurisprudence: First, Sinomarxism conceptualizes both law and (legal) science as subordinate to practice. Enacting, interpreting, and analyzing the law (as part of the superstructure in a Marxist sense) must “seek truth from facts” (as part of the basis). This emanates from the base-superstructure-theory, the core element of (historical) materialism. Second, the practice that law must abide by is the actual one. The actuality criterion merges the base-superstructure model and dialectics into dialectical materialism. However, the “actual” situation in China—as expressed by the so-called main contradictions (社会主要矛盾) in Chinese society—is exclusively determined by the CCP. Third, Sino-Marxism propagates an integrated “politics and law” (政法) concept. It considers law (and legal studies) as intrinsically interwoven with, and subordinate to, politics. Both the political system and all policies in China can ultimately be drawn back to CCP as the exclusive ruling party exercising comprehensive party leadership (党的全面领导).
Following this subordination of law and science to the “actual” facts and to party politics, Sino-Marxism—including Xi Jinping Legal Thought—demands both legal norms and legal studies to “emanate from political realism,” “repel abstract and void idealism,” and “be born out of political power.” Such demands cumulate in a factualist positivism of power undermining the normativity and autonomy of (Chinese) law and legal studies.

Philipp Renninger is a Postdoc. Mobility Fellow and visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. He regularly teaches as an Assistant Professor at the China University of Political Science and Law.
Philipp’s first research focus lies on comparative public law, particularly federalism, central-local relations, urban law, and human rights. He contrasts Chinese law with jurisdictions such as his native Germany and Switzerland as well as the UK and the U.S. Philipp has a second key interest in comparative jurisprudence. He specializes in Sinomarxism, ancient Chinese legal philosophy, and Weimar-era German legal theory.
Philipp holds a dual-degree PhD in law from the Universities of Freiburg and Lucerne. Previously, he read law and Chinese in Freiburg and Nanjing. Philipp has held short-term and/or visiting appointments at Oxford, King’s College London, NUS Singapore, MPI Heidelberg, and Lund University.

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies