The Establishment And Influence Of The Individual Ownership System In Modern China

The real ownership system showed its appearance in The Draft of the Civil Law of the Great Qing Dynasty during the late Qing dynasty,but before the Draft was promulgated the Qing government has fallen down.However,the development of the ownership system has not stopped here.The legal status of individual independence is confirmed from top to bottom.The constitution endows the individual with independent personality,and the civil law also confirms the individual’s civil subject status,which are the basis of the establishment of individual ownership.The Court of Dali adopted case law to perfect the ownership system in practice.Under the interaction of social practice and law,the subject of property right gradually changes from family to individual.There are three reasons for this.On the one hand,the Self-Strengthening Movement has contributed to urbanization and the emergence of new modes of economic interaction in society,which to some extent has given rise to the need for legal change.The revision of laws in the late Qing dynasty more or less responded to the need of establishing individual independent status so that individuals could adapt to the new social development model.On the other hand,the top-down legal reform makes the civil law take over the criminal law to protect the family,and the criminal law protection of family ethics has declined since then.The gradual separation of the individual from the family is a prerequisite for individual ownership.In addition,the law reform not only leads the social change,but also responds the social change in the legislation.Along with the establishment of individual rights,the whole society has focused more and more on individuals,which has brought the decline of the family ethics.Because the protection of individual rights through laws,the protection of traditional family status has been weakened,as shown from the decline of parents’ authority on marriage,husband’s authority,and decretal authority.Family even has been gradually reduced to the fields of marriage and inheritance in the civil law.The change of the legal status of family also has made the restriction from the family gradually reduced,so that individuals can walk out of the family and obtain the independent economic status,and then completely get rid of family’s restrictions on their personality and property.It is through the exploration of the establishment process of individual ownership system that the strong tolerance and rapid progress of the whole modern Chinese law and Chinese society can be observed.