Hidden Laws

Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government

Chinese Lawmaking: From Non-communicative to Communicative

Dr Peng He in her book addresses various issues, drawing on Western and Chinese sources for her argument for a ‘communicative’ theory of law making. This book is both timely and important in the Chinese context. Her argument depends upon the insight that what is important in societies is not just representative democracy but ‘voice’ - the opportunity for individuals to be heard and bring their input into official systems. More than that, she argues that this can also take further the idea of living by the rules as something that is not to be seen as narrow Legalism but as something more akin to living ‘righteously’ – a view which is resonant with parts of Chinese legal thought. This book is also important in the present Chinese context in another way. The developing economy necessitates substantial legal reform. But applying Western models to China can often be naïve and not fully fulfil their intended purpose. Peng He’s work addresses this by looking at the process of legislation in connection with legal reform. It is grounded in a sound theoretical reflection of both the process of legal transplantation and the process of law making, and looks both at Western and Chinese sources. Such an approach needs to draw from several intellectual traditions and it is this interdisciplinary, foundational research that is the task Dr He has set herself in her project. Her theory will provide an abstract theoretical framework that is sensitive to local conditions, while at the same time incorporating insights on law reform from a broad range of disciplines. Her research is of direct practical relevance for reforming the legislative process in China. ——Professor Zenon Bańkowski The University of Edinburgh

Theory and Practice in Essene Law

This book offers a novel approach for the study of law in the Judean Desert Scrolls, using the prism of legal theory. Following a couple of decades of scholarly consensus withdrawing from the "Essene hypothesis," it proposes to revive the term, and suggests employing it for the sectarian movement as a whole, while considering the group that lived in Qumran as the Yahad. It further proposes a new suggestion for the emergence of the Yahad, based on the roles of the Examiner and the Instructor in the two major legal codes, the Damascus Document and the Community Rule. The understanding of Essene law is divided into concepts and practices, in order to emphasize the discrepancy between creed, rhetoric, and practices. The abstract exploration of notions such as time, space, obligation, intention, and retribution, is then compared against the realities of social practices, including admission, initiation, covenant, leadership, reproof, and punishment. The legal analysis yields several new suggestions for the study of the scrolls: first, Amihay proposes to rename the two strands of thought of Jewish law, formerly referred to as "nominalism" and "realism," with the terms "legal essentialism" and "legal formalism." The two laws of admission in the Community Rule are distinguished as two different laws, one of an association for a group as a whole, the other as an admission of an individual. The law of reproof is proven to be an independent legal procedure, rather than a preliminary stage of prosecution. The methodological division in this study of thought and practice provides a nuanced approach for the study of law in general, and religious law in particular.