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Law

Chinese Law

The SOAS Library’s collection of printed materials on the law of the People’s Republic of China is shelved on Level D. Classmarks begin with the letter ‘A’ and fall within A345.1

The Library also has national responsibility to collect legal material (law reports, legislation, official gazettes) for specific regions. They include:

  • China
  • Hong Kong
  • Taiwan

There are various guides to researching the law of the People’s Republic of China:

Databases

PKU Law 

Bilingual database including English versions of legal information from the People's Republic of China which can be searched in either English or Chinese. Contains English translations of Chinese laws and regulations, judicial cases, legal news, leading Chinese law journals and gazettes. 

Westlaw International

Contains:

  • Hong Kong case law from 1905 onwards
  • Hong Kong Legislation from 1997
Lexis+

Contains:

  • Hong Kong case law from 1947 onward
  • Current legislation for Hong Kong

Bibliography of Asian Studies 
Index of Western language monographs, journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings and anthologies on all parts of Asia published since 1971

Web Resources

Worldlii – East Asia
Provides links to free websites containing general legal information on East Asia and for each country within each region. Provides links to primary resources (case law, legislation and constitutions) for each country, where available.

Asia Legal Information Network

Offers a selection of articles, laws, regulations and conference papers made freely available when you register on the site.

AsianLII
Contains Chinese legislation and related documents that have been translated into English.

Lehman, Lee and Xu
Chinese law firm website with full text of selected Chinese laws and regulations in English.

Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China

Hong Kong Legal Information Institute
Provides free access to the primary legal materials of Hong Kong SAR of the People's Republic of China.

Hong Kong Dept. of Justice Bilingual Laws Information System
Free database providing access to the laws of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Judiciary
Provides information on the Judiciary of the Hong Kong SAR of the People's Republic of China. Also allows access to the full text of judgments and practice directions (since 1993).

Asian Law Online
A free, online bibliographic database of books, chapters in books, journal articles and theses that relate to Asian legal systems. Produced by the Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne.