Confucian Legal Thought

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Abstract: 

I provide an overview of the legal thought of the Chinese philosopher Mozi and the Mohist school more broadly.  More specifically, I present Mozi’s legal thought in a linear fashion, proceeding from a pre-law society (the state of nature, according to Mozi) to a law society (a society with legal norms).  It is my contention on the jurisprudential level that, contrary to many other scholars who have written on Mozi’s legal thought, Mozi’s legal thought cannot be characterized as a natural law theory and that Mozi cannot be classified as a natural law lawyer.  Rather, I argue that Mozi’s legal thought cannot be cleanly characterized as natural law (non-positivism) or a theory of positivism because he is ultimately not concerned with questions regarding the grounds or concept of law.  He is largely concerned with more practical questions about what constitutes good, effective, beneficial law.  Thus, at most, he can be perhaps be classified in modern jurisprudential terms as a rule consequentialist. 

Speaker:

Norman P. Ho is Professor of Law at Peking University School of Transnational Law (“STL”).  He teaches and writes in the areas of property law, Chinese legal history & legal thought, and law & the humanities (especially law and music) and is the founder and convener of the STL Law & Humanities Seminar Series.  He has taught as a Visiting Professor of Law at National University of Singapore and at Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law.  Prior to entering academia, he practiced in the law firms of Morrison & Foerster and Slaughter and May.  He holds AB (History) and AM (Regional Studies-East Asia) degrees from Harvard, an MA (Music) from The Open University (UK), and a JD from NYU Law.

Abstract: 

Speaker:

Joseph Chan is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He taught political theory in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at The University of Hong Kong for 30 years. From 2019 to 2022, he served as a Global Scholar and Visiting Professor at the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, where he taught Confucian political philosophy. In 2024, he was elected an International Fellow of the British Academy.

Abstract: 

This paper will look at the Confucian views on the relation between qing (情) and the law. The term “qing” is sometimes translated as “emotion” or “feeling”, but these are problematic translations, as they usually refer to psychological states which are individualistic, varying from one person to another, also changing in the same person from time to time, and may be impulsive and irrational, and are contrasted with reason or rationality in philosophical discourse as well as in common parlance in the Western intellectual tradition.
In the Confucian tradition, however, especially when the term “qing” is mentioned in the context of commenting on different kinds of norms (including moral, social, and legal norms), it refers to common human sentiments (renqing 人情), indicating what human beings (as human beings) naturally care and sincerely value) which are based on human nature (renxing 人性). Qing is regarded as having normative relevance and should be taken into consideration in the justification and evaluation of the laws that have been made or should be made.
This paper will first clarify the Confucian concept of “qing”, and examine the Confucian view on the proper relation between qing and law. The practical implications of such a view will be reviewed, and the philosophical significance of this qing-based view will be investigated.

Speaker:

YU Kam Por’s main research area is ethics, including comparative ethics and applied ethics. He retired from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as the Director of the General Education Centre, and is currently Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Cambodia University of Technology and Science. He has been Research Fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health of Harvard University, Associate Professor in the Department of Public and Social Administration of the City University of Hong Kong, Research Officer in the Philosophy Department of the University of Hong Kong, and Senior Fellow in the Center for European Integration Studies of Bonn University in Germany. He was elected Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh, and vetted as an ethics expert by the Global Ethics Observatory of UNESCO in 2005. He has written or co-edited 17 books, including Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously (SUNY, 2010), Handbook in Social Ethics (Oxford, 2012), Ethical Dilemmas in Public Policy (Springer, 2016), Land and Housing Controversies: Perspectives of Justice and Social Values (Springer, 2020). His recent publications include: Discourses on Applied Ethics: Fundamental Ideas and Contemporary Issues (in Chinese, 2022); “Discourses and Debates on Peace Making in Chinese History”, in Oxford Handbook of Peace History (Oxford 2023), and “Approaches to Human Rights: Concepts, Conceptions, and Controversies”, in Rights and Urban Controversies in Hong Kong: From the Eastern and Western Perspectives (Springer, 2023).

Confucian Legal Thought

Abstract: 

I provide an overview of the legal thought of the Chinese philosopher Mozi and the Mohist school more broadly.  More specifically, I present Mozi’s legal thought in a linear fashion, proceeding from a pre-law society (the state of nature, according to Mozi) to a law society (a society with legal norms).  It is my contention on the jurisprudential level that, contrary to many other scholars who have written on Mozi’s legal thought, Mozi’s legal thought cannot be characterized as a natural law theory and that Mozi cannot be classified as a natural law lawyer.  Rather, I argue that Mozi’s legal thought cannot be cleanly characterized as natural law (non-positivism) or a theory of positivism because he is ultimately not concerned with questions regarding the grounds or concept of law.  He is largely concerned with more practical questions about what constitutes good, effective, beneficial law.  Thus, at most, he can be perhaps be classified in modern jurisprudential terms as a rule consequentialist. 

Speaker:

Norman P. Ho is Professor of Law at Peking University School of Transnational Law (“STL”).  He teaches and writes in the areas of property law, Chinese legal history & legal thought, and law & the humanities (especially law and music) and is the founder and convener of the STL Law & Humanities Seminar Series.  He has taught as a Visiting Professor of Law at National University of Singapore and at Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law.  Prior to entering academia, he practiced in the law firms of Morrison & Foerster and Slaughter and May.  He holds AB (History) and AM (Regional Studies-East Asia) degrees from Harvard, an MA (Music) from The Open University (UK), and a JD from NYU Law.

Abstract: 

Speaker:

Joseph Chan is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He taught political theory in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at The University of Hong Kong for 30 years. From 2019 to 2022, he served as a Global Scholar and Visiting Professor at the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, where he taught Confucian political philosophy. In 2024, he was elected an International Fellow of the British Academy.

Abstract: 

This paper will look at the Confucian views on the relation between qing (情) and the law. The term “qing” is sometimes translated as “emotion” or “feeling”, but these are problematic translations, as they usually refer to psychological states which are individualistic, varying from one person to another, also changing in the same person from time to time, and may be impulsive and irrational, and are contrasted with reason or rationality in philosophical discourse as well as in common parlance in the Western intellectual tradition.
In the Confucian tradition, however, especially when the term “qing” is mentioned in the context of commenting on different kinds of norms (including moral, social, and legal norms), it refers to common human sentiments (renqing 人情), indicating what human beings (as human beings) naturally care and sincerely value) which are based on human nature (renxing 人性). Qing is regarded as having normative relevance and should be taken into consideration in the justification and evaluation of the laws that have been made or should be made.
This paper will first clarify the Confucian concept of “qing”, and examine the Confucian view on the proper relation between qing and law. The practical implications of such a view will be reviewed, and the philosophical significance of this qing-based view will be investigated.

Speaker:

YU Kam Por’s main research area is ethics, including comparative ethics and applied ethics. He retired from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as the Director of the General Education Centre, and is currently Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Cambodia University of Technology and Science. He has been Research Fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health of Harvard University, Associate Professor in the Department of Public and Social Administration of the City University of Hong Kong, Research Officer in the Philosophy Department of the University of Hong Kong, and Senior Fellow in the Center for European Integration Studies of Bonn University in Germany. He was elected Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh, and vetted as an ethics expert by the Global Ethics Observatory of UNESCO in 2005. He has written or co-edited 17 books, including Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously (SUNY, 2010), Handbook in Social Ethics (Oxford, 2012), Ethical Dilemmas in Public Policy (Springer, 2016), Land and Housing Controversies: Perspectives of Justice and Social Values (Springer, 2020). His recent publications include: Discourses on Applied Ethics: Fundamental Ideas and Contemporary Issues (in Chinese, 2022); “Discourses and Debates on Peace Making in Chinese History”, in Oxford Handbook of Peace History (Oxford 2023), and “Approaches to Human Rights: Concepts, Conceptions, and Controversies”, in Rights and Urban Controversies in Hong Kong: From the Eastern and Western Perspectives (Springer, 2023).

Confucian Legal Thought

Abstract: 

I provide an overview of the legal thought of the Chinese philosopher Mozi and the Mohist school more broadly.  More specifically, I present Mozi’s legal thought in a linear fashion, proceeding from a pre-law society (the state of nature, according to Mozi) to a law society (a society with legal norms).  It is my contention on the jurisprudential level that, contrary to many other scholars who have written on Mozi’s legal thought, Mozi’s legal thought cannot be characterized as a natural law theory and that Mozi cannot be classified as a natural law lawyer.  Rather, I argue that Mozi’s legal thought cannot be cleanly characterized as natural law (non-positivism) or a theory of positivism because he is ultimately not concerned with questions regarding the grounds or concept of law.  He is largely concerned with more practical questions about what constitutes good, effective, beneficial law.  Thus, at most, he can be perhaps be classified in modern jurisprudential terms as a rule consequentialist. 

Speaker:

Norman P. Ho is Professor of Law at Peking University School of Transnational Law (“STL”).  He teaches and writes in the areas of property law, Chinese legal history & legal thought, and law & the humanities (especially law and music) and is the founder and convener of the STL Law & Humanities Seminar Series.  He has taught as a Visiting Professor of Law at National University of Singapore and at Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law.  Prior to entering academia, he practiced in the law firms of Morrison & Foerster and Slaughter and May.  He holds AB (History) and AM (Regional Studies-East Asia) degrees from Harvard, an MA (Music) from The Open University (UK), and a JD from NYU Law.

Abstract: 

Speaker:

Joseph Chan is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He taught political theory in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at The University of Hong Kong for 30 years. From 2019 to 2022, he served as a Global Scholar and Visiting Professor at the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, where he taught Confucian political philosophy. In 2024, he was elected an International Fellow of the British Academy.

Abstract: 

This paper will look at the Confucian views on the relation between qing (情) and the law. The term “qing” is sometimes translated as “emotion” or “feeling”, but these are problematic translations, as they usually refer to psychological states which are individualistic, varying from one person to another, also changing in the same person from time to time, and may be impulsive and irrational, and are contrasted with reason or rationality in philosophical discourse as well as in common parlance in the Western intellectual tradition.
In the Confucian tradition, however, especially when the term “qing” is mentioned in the context of commenting on different kinds of norms (including moral, social, and legal norms), it refers to common human sentiments (renqing 人情), indicating what human beings (as human beings) naturally care and sincerely value) which are based on human nature (renxing 人性). Qing is regarded as having normative relevance and should be taken into consideration in the justification and evaluation of the laws that have been made or should be made.
This paper will first clarify the Confucian concept of “qing”, and examine the Confucian view on the proper relation between qing and law. The practical implications of such a view will be reviewed, and the philosophical significance of this qing-based view will be investigated.

Speaker:

YU Kam Por’s main research area is ethics, including comparative ethics and applied ethics. He retired from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as the Director of the General Education Centre, and is currently Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Cambodia University of Technology and Science. He has been Research Fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health of Harvard University, Associate Professor in the Department of Public and Social Administration of the City University of Hong Kong, Research Officer in the Philosophy Department of the University of Hong Kong, and Senior Fellow in the Center for European Integration Studies of Bonn University in Germany. He was elected Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh, and vetted as an ethics expert by the Global Ethics Observatory of UNESCO in 2005. He has written or co-edited 17 books, including Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously (SUNY, 2010), Handbook in Social Ethics (Oxford, 2012), Ethical Dilemmas in Public Policy (Springer, 2016), Land and Housing Controversies: Perspectives of Justice and Social Values (Springer, 2020). His recent publications include: Discourses on Applied Ethics: Fundamental Ideas and Contemporary Issues (in Chinese, 2022); “Discourses and Debates on Peace Making in Chinese History”, in Oxford Handbook of Peace History (Oxford 2023), and “Approaches to Human Rights: Concepts, Conceptions, and Controversies”, in Rights and Urban Controversies in Hong Kong: From the Eastern and Western Perspectives (Springer, 2023).