Comparing legal development in China and Vietnam: an introduction

Abstract

For many decades, global discourse about legal development has been dominated by Western notions of rule of law and liberal democracy. The gradual shift of economic power from the West to North East Asia over the last 40 years, and to China more recently, presents a new and distinctive challenge to Western domination over global development discourse. To explore this phenomenon, we argue that it is necessary to abandon, or at least suspend, the belief that 'global culture,' which developed out of the European Enlightenment and diffused worldwide through imperialism and imitation, is an irresistible socializing force. We need to consider the possibility that 'global culture,' which now includes North East Asian influences, does not invariably produce local variations of Western or North East Asian legal development in socialist Asia. These models are important but may not be the only reference points for legal development elsewhere in Asia.