In search of Chinese jurisprudence : does Chinese legal tradition have a place in China's future?

Over the last few decades, economic reforms have been a key policy objective in Asia. Legal reforms were, however, treated as a by-product. Legislators and regulators in Asia did not appear to give much thought to considering the compatibility of new commercial laws with their cultural heritage and social norms. The People's Republic of China is a prime example. Many new commercial laws such as company law, securities law, and anti-monopoly law were recently introduced. These laws were transplanted primarily from the United States and the European Union as Chinese officials assumed that if they worked in those countries they would work in China. What the Chinese authorities failed to realise is that the fundamental values and rights attached to these Western laws are entwined in the Western legal traditions. Hence the embedded ideological and cultural contradictions within Chinese culture and heritage have not been addressed.