Cover not available
Part of
Handbook of Terminology: Volume 3. Legal Terminology
Edited by Łucja Biel and Hendrik J. Kockaert
[Handbook of Terminology 3] 2023
► pp. 173–190

Terminological features of the Chinese legal language

| Griffith University
In this essay, Chinese legal linguistic features, specifically, the terminological features, are discussed, in terms of the Chinese legislative language. It first outlines the historical and cultural developments and context in which classical Chinese conception of law was situated in traditional China, and the emergence and development of the modern Chinese legal language as a peculiar translated legal language. It then highlights the key terminological features of the modern Chinese legal language and some of its complexities with selected illustrative examples from Chinese legal terminology.
Keywords: Chinese legal language, legal translation, legal concept, legal terms, Chinese law
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Cultural background of traditional Chinese law and keywords
  • 3.Development of Modern Chinese legal language
  • 4.Key terminological features of the Modern Chinese legal language
    • 4.1Three sets of Chinese legal vocabulary
    • 4.2Emerging and expanding legal technical vocabulary
    • 4.3Legal performatives
    • 4.4Lexical uncertainty
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.3.ter10
References (37)
References
Cao, Deborah. 2004. Chinese Law: A Language Perspective. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
. 2007a. “Inter-lingual Uncertainty in Bilingual and Multilingual Law.” Journal of Pragmatics 39(1):69–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007b. Translating law. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008. “Is the Chinese Legal Language more Ambiguous and Vaguer?” In Obscurity and Clarity in the Law: Prospects and Challenges, edited by Anne Wagner and Sophie Cacciaguidi-Fahy, 109–125. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
. 2009. “Illocutionary Acts of Chinese Legislative Language.” Journal of Pragmatics 41(7):1329–1340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. Chinese Language in Law: Code Red. Lanham: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
. 2021. “Translation as a Catalyst in the Development of Modern Chinese Legal Language.” Comparative Legilinguistics: International Journal for Legal Communication 45:39–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Li. 2015. Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes. New York: Columbia University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, Adam Scott. 2019. “The Problematic Definition of ‘Chinese’ in Hong Kong.” Language & Communication 67:55–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hao, Tiechuan. 1997. “Zhongguo jindai faxue liuxuesheng yu fazhi jindaihua (China’s Returned Law Students from Overseas and Its Law Modernization).” Faxue yanjiu (CASS Law Journal) 6:3–33.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. 1961/1994, The Concept of Law, 2nd edition, with a Postscript edited byPenelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
He, Qinhua. 2001. “《 万国公法》 与清末国际法 [The Elements of International Law in Chinese and International law in the Late Qing Dynasty].” Faxue yanjiu [CASS Law Journal] 23(5):137–148.Google Scholar
. 2004a. 法律文化史谭 [Studies in the History of Legal Culture]. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
. 2004b. “法科留学生与中国近代法学 [The Chinese Law Students Studying Abroad and Modern Chinese Legal Science].” Faxue luntan 6(5):82–90.Google Scholar
Henderson, Dan Fenno. 1970. “Japanese Influences on Communist Chinese Legal Language.” In Contemporary Chinese Law: Research Problems and Perspectives, edited by Jerome Alan Cohen, 158–187. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lackner, Michael, Iwo Amelung, and Joachim Kurtz. 2001. New Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Guilian. 1997. “二十世纪初期的中国法学 [Legal Studies in Early Twentieth Century China].” Zhongwai faxue [Chinese and Foreign Legal Studies] 2(1):1–14.Google Scholar
Liang, Zhiping. 1989. “Explicating Law: a Comparative Perspective of Chinese and Western Legal Culture.” Journal of Chinese Law 3:55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lubman, Stanley B. 1970. “Methodological Problems in Studying Chinese Communist Civil Law.” In Contemporary Chinese Law: Research Problems and Perspectives, edited by Jerome Alan Cohen, 230–260. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
MacCormack, Geoffrey. 1990. Traditional Chinese Penal Law. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Mühlhahn, Klaus. 2009. Criminal Justice in China: A History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ng, Kwai Hang. 2020. The Common Law in Two Voices: Language, Law, and the Postcolonial Dilemma in Hong Kong. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Price, Gareth. 2019. Language, Society, and the State: From Colonization to Globalization in Taiwan, Vol. 9. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Qu, Wensheng. 2013. 从词典出发: 法律术语译名统一与规范化的翻译史研究 [Start from Dictionaries: Studies on the Translation History of Harmonization and Standardization of Translated Legal Terms]. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
. 2015. “Compilations of Law Dictionaries in New China and their Roles on Standardization of Translated Legal Terms.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law-Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 280(3):449–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seymour, James D. and Patrick Yuk-tung Wong. 2015. “China and the International Human Rights Covenants.” Critical Asian Studies 47(4):514–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sin, King-kui. 2018. “Language, Law, Translation, and Society: The Sociolinguistics of Translating Hong Kong Laws.” In An Encyclopedia of Practical Translation and Interpreting, edited by Sin-wai Chan, 101. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.Google Scholar
Soo, Francis. 1989. “China and Modernization: Past and Present a Discussion.” Studies in Soviet Thought 38(1):3–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tao, Yun. 2013. “中日法律同形词词源考 – 以 “裁判” 为例 [On the Origins of the Legal Terms with the Same Chinese and Japanese Characters].” South China Normal University Academic Journal 2:127–132.Google Scholar
Tian, Tao and Zhuhuan Li. 2000. “清末翻译外国法学书籍评述 [Commentary on the Chinese Translations of Foreign Legal Works in the Late Qing Dynasty].” Zhongwai faxue [Peking University Law Journal] 12(3):355–71.Google Scholar
Timoteo, Marina. 2015. “Law and Language: Issues Related to Legal Translation and Interpretation of Chinese Rules on Tortious Liability of Environmental Pollution.” China-EU Law Journal 4(2):121–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Turner, Karen. 1992. “Rule of Law Ideals in Early China?” Journal of Chinese Law 6(2):1–44.Google Scholar
Wang, Chung Hui. 1907. The German Civil Code, Translated and Annotated, with an Historical Introduction and Appendices. London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd.Google Scholar
Wang, Jian. 2005. “晚清法学新词的创制及其与日本的关系 [New Coinage of Legal Vocabulary in Late Qing Dynasty and Impact on Relation with Japan].” Nanjing University Academic Journal 6:100–109.Google Scholar
Wang, Tay-sheng. 2002. “The Legal Development of Taiwan in the 20th Century: Toward a Liberal and Democratic Country.” Pac. Rim L. & Pol’y J. 11:531.Google Scholar
. 2015. Legal Reform in Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule, 1895–1945: The Reception of Western Law. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Jiang. 2001. 近代中国法学语词的形成与发展 [Formation and Development of Modern Chinese Legal Language and Terms]. Beijing: Zhongguo zhengfa daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar