Professor Wang Yi Awarded “Rule of Law Figure of Year 2023”

Professor Wang Yi was awarded the 2023 'Rule of Law Figure of the Year'

On December 15, China News Week's 'Influential Figures of the Year2023' were announced in Beijing, covering many fields such as culture, rule of law, economy, technology, education, sports, and performing arts. Jurist and Vice President of Renmin University of China, Professor Wang Yi, was awarded “Rule of Law Figure of Year 2023”.

Professor WANG Yi grew up in an era when China's civil legal system was developing rapidly. He studied under several civil law masters and participated in the drafting of many separate laws. Systematizing China's civil legislation is the dream of countless legal professionals. In the end, as a member of the leading group of the China Law Society's Civil Code Compilation Project, he witnessed China ushering in the 'Civil Code Era.' Between the difficult research on civil law and the complex real world, he continues to explain the spirit of legislation to the public with a broad vision and popular language. In his opinion, the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, responds to the 'questions of China' and 'questions of the times', and embodies the spirit of Chinese civil legal professionals.

Having participated in legal drafting work for over thirty years, Wang Yi regard himself as a "scholar" instead of a "legislator". "Scholars are the writers of suggestions and participate in discussions in the legislative process."

His academic career began at a critical juncture when China shifted from a planned economy to a market economy, and legislative work in the field of civil and commercial rule of law was put on the fast track. From the drafting of contract law that was ahead of social development to the compilation of civil code that must respond to the issues of the times, Wang Yi participated in and witnessed the transition of Chinese civil law from the "age of justice" to the "age of principles."

Wang Yi’s problem awareness also comes from legal drafting practice. How to effectively reason in civil law? What rules should be followed in academic debates? Faced with the "orientations, foresights, and preferences" encapsulated in everyone's mind by historical processes, how can the academic community reach a consensus through understanding, rather than letting disputes of opinions evolve into emotional battles?

“An eternally repeated dream [that] would certainly be felt and judged to be reality”

(Nietzsche 7) Nietzsche's judgment has become Wang Yi's cherished motto. For Wang Yi, that dream is simple: Let the science of civil law talk.

The chosen young man

At the end of 1993, Wang Yi and his senior fellow apprentice Yang Minggang were called to the reference room of Jilin University Law School. The just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee passed the important "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Issues concerning the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economy", marking the formal transformation of China's economy into a socialist market economy. In the reference room, tutor Cui Jianyuan told the two civil and commercial law master's students that China was about to start the drafting of Contract Act of the People's Republic of China. Experts and scholars from twelve domestic law schools and scientific research institutions were entrusted to complete the contracts separately. Cui Jianyuan was responsible for drafting the two chapters including " Cancellation and Termination of Contract" and "Extermination of Contract". Wang Yi was selected by his tutor participating the drafting of contract law.

However, being suddenly brought to the front line of the legal drafting, the sense of intimacy was quickly dissipated by the pressure mixed with excitement. Wang Yi doubted whether his knowledge accumulation could match the work requirements of his mentor.

Looking back thirty years later, Wang Yi is convinced that he has caught up with a very special opportunity for legal drafting: the socialist market economy was far from the reality of Chinese social life at that time, and the drafting of contract law was ahead of social life. Young people who lacked of life experience was also not be a hindrance, because no one has enough experience in the socialist market economy at that time. For legal drafters, the value of text is rarely higher than the value of social life. No matter it was the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Vienna, 1980) (CISG) or " Principles of International Commercial Contracts ", scholars will read whatever is popular internationally, and finally the key task is to absorb, learn from outside world, In the words of that era, “In line with international standards.”

Moving forward a step

In 1998, when the drafting of the Real Right Law of the People s Republic of China was officially launched, Wang Yi was studying for his doctorate at the School of Law at Renmin University of China.

The second generation of civil law scholars, represented by Wang Liming, Liang Huixing, Cui Jianyuan, Sun Xianzhong and others, began to play a backbone role in legal drafting. At that time, his mentor Wang Liming and Liang Huixing, a professor at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, were entrusted by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to draft expert recommendations on Real Right Law.

Large-scale foreign literature began to be translated and introduced into China, which greatly broadened the scholars’ vision. The accumulation of talents and knowledge has made discussions in academic community of the civil law more active and the debate more intense. However, Wang Yi found that scholars with different viewpoints often have different presuppositions about questions. When facing with the same question, some scholars think it is a factual judgment, while others think it is a value judgment or choice of interpretation.

When the fourth Civil Code drafting work started in 2001, the differences became more obvious. Individual academic disputes can even turn into emotional disputes among scholars. The debate spills over beyond the academic community of civil law and attracts widespread attention from society.

"The discussants participating in the seminar organized by the legislative body each have their own opinions and understandings. How can everyone form an effective debate and discuss within a rational scope?" During this period, Wang Yi tried to answer these questions in a research paper.

"The core of civil law methodology is to solve three questions: First, what are the conditions for effective discussion? Second, what are the methods of effective discussion? Third, where are the boundaries of effective discussion?" "You must have the ability to discuss, and you must have the wisdom not to argue.” Wang Yi said, and his conclusion is: As for value judgment issues, in order to have an effective discussion, discussants must share a minimum value consensus, which contains the argument burden rules for value judgment issues.

Judging from the actual situation in the legal community of Chinese civil law, scholars can at least reach a consensus on the two basic principles of civil law: "equality" and "freedom." Accordingly, Wang Yi proposed two substantive argumentation rules: first, in the absence of sufficient and justifiable reasons, equal treatment in the strong sense should be adhered to; second, restriction on the freedom of civil subjects will not be upheld in the absence of sufficient justification.

From the "Age of Might" to the "Age of Right"

Compiling a civil code belonging to the Chinese people has been the dream of generations of civil law scholars. With the continuous improvement of China's socialist market economic system, individual laws are overlapping and contradictory in a state of decentralized legislation, the time for compiling a civil code is becoming increasingly mature.

On March 20, 2015, the compilation of the Civil Code was officially launched. Wang Yi and his teachers at undergraduate, master's and doctoral were all present. He remembered the sacred atmosphere, "That day must be written into history. Everyone knows that it is a major event that has an impact on the country and the nation. As participants and scholars, we answer questions raised by the country and the nation. Everyone is filled with enthusiasm and expectations, hoping that it will be excellent, useful to the country and nation, and recognized by peers around the world."

However, in the process of compiling the Civil Code, how scholars with different views can reach mutual understanding and consensus is still a problem that troubles everyone. Wang Yi found that there was a lack of consensus on "what issues are the most important."

"First, what stakeholders exist in the reality of Chinese social life? What are the coordination strategies used in the past to deal with these interest relationships? What are the coordination goals preset by these coordination strategies? Have these coordination goals been achieved? Second, what is the common value shared by Chinese people today?” In Wang Yi’s view, the compilation of China’s civil code must reflect both Chinese characteristics and the spirit of the times, and must face and respond to these two factual questions. On this basis, it will further extend to the issues of value judgment "how to respond", interpretation choice, and legislative technical issues.

In Wang Yi’s view, since the drafting of the Real Right Law, the academic community has become more willing to discuss, “This is a remarkable change”.

It has been more than three years since the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China was promulgated. The Civil Code no longer dominates the news headlines, but for civil law scholars like Wang Yi, attention has never shifted.

"Next, the 1,260 articles of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China will enter into judicial documents, enter into the specific judicial decision, administrative decision, and our daily lives. As scholars, we will continue to observe its substantive impact on people's daily lives. Whether it has been shifted from rules between the line to the laws in action.”

He is also concerned about a series of judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme Court, "The practical implementation of the civil code still needs a lot of legislative and judicial documents to support, there are still a lot of work on the way, and will never be done."

The importance of academic discussion cannot be overstated. Three months after the promulgation of the Civil Code, Wang Yi was appointed as vice president of Renmin University of China. More social work and management affairs poured in, and time was cut into pieces, but he requires himself to teach undergraduates for at least one semester every academic year, to maintain thinking in this professional field, and more importantly, to teach batches of younger and younger students his thoughts on methodology and theory of norms.