Caposaldi romanistici nei principi generali del Codice civile cinese 2020

Abstract

The study of the general principles of the recent Chinese Civil Code illustrates the presence of a systematic Euroromanist approach which, by inserting these principles in the initial and general part of the legislative body, does not confine them there, but elevates them to fundamental elements of the entire system. Furthermore, the connection with Roman law emerges, in a manifest and substantial way, from the recognition of Roman law cornerstones in these general principles. Through the diachronic comparison to the law of ancient Rome, three fundamental elements of Roman private law are depicted – aequitas, bona fides and freedom of contract – and, thus, the presence of Roman law roots within Chinese civil law is highlighted. The Chinese Civil Code 2020 therefore seems to definitively affirm the belonging of the Sinic civil law system to the Romanist tradition. Indeed, albeit flanked by the existence of contributions from other legal models and by "typically Chinese" elements, the influence of the continental-Romanist model seems evident as well as the persistence of Roman law as a living juridical point of reference.