Beschrijving
Throughout his study, MacCormack distinguishes between “official,” or penal and administrative, law, which emanated from the emperor to his officials, and “unofficial,” or customary, law, which developed in certain localities or among associations of merchants and traders.
By the end of the eighth century A.D., imperial China had established a system of administrative and penal law, the main institutions of which lasted until the collapse of the Ch’ing dynasty in 1911. The Spirit of Traditional Chinese Law studies the views held throughout the centuries by the educated elite on the role of law in government, the relationship between law and morality, and the purpose of punishment.
Geoffrey MacCormack’s introduction offers a brief history of legal development in China, describes the principal contributions to the law of the Confucian and Legalist schools, and identifies several other attributes that might be said to constitute the \
