International and Area Studies Library

History, Philosophy, & Newspaper Library

This LibGuide is a course guide for EALC550/398 Law and Society in Chinese History.

This cross-disciplinary graduate seminar introduces students to the historical roots of contemporary problems concerning law and society in China.

This course focuses on historical, legal, anthropological, and fictional readings on “law” (C: fa, ling, lü, li, gui, ze) in modern and contemporary Chinese society from the late Qing to the present. Major themes to be covered include: 1) the changes in the conception of law in different historical periods; 2) social consequences of legal codes; 3) import of western legal concepts and codes; 4) usage of legal materials for Historical and East Asian studies.  Course materials include varied genres of publications: academic writings, journalistic reports, governmental documents, archival excerpts, as well as visual materials. 

It will facilitate a cross-disciplinary dialogue among students from different academic disciplines, national origins, and ethnic groups.  It aims at training students to develop skills at transnational research, comparative studies of primary sources, critical review of theories, creative application of cross-disciplinary research methods, multi-lingual reading, as well as ability to identify new problems and pose interesting questions for future research and to do archive-based research in a crucial field that is growing fast.