Center for Chinese Studies at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Although the focus is usually on the federal/central government, the development of national constitutions is often significantly influenced by the role of regional governments. The United States is a federal system, and state governments have played a well-known prominent role in the formation of the national constitution. The development history of the U.S. constitution has been full of back-and-forth between the federal government and the states. In contrast, China is often seen as a highly centralized unitary state, but local governments actually have extensive legislative powers, including a key transition that occurred during the late Qing and early Republican periods when provincial governments across China developed local constitutional systems, framing the basic framework for local institutions in the later national constitution. In-depth understanding of the role of regional governments in the development of national constitutions can not only help us better recognize the complexity and dynamism of constitutional construction, but also provide insights into the possible choices we face today.

Speaker:
Bin Ling, Professor at Peking University Law School, and PhD Supervisor. Director of the Center for Law and Social Governance Studies at Peking University. He graduated from Peking University Law School (LL.B., 2000; Ph.D. in Law, 2005) and Yale Law School (LL.M., 2006; J.S.D., 2024). His main research interests include legal theory, comparative law, constitutional history, law and social sciences, and law and policy. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Vice President, Adjudication Committee Member, and Judge at the People's Court of Fangshan District, Beijing. He has also been a visiting scholar at Cornell Law School (2013), Tilburg Law School (2014), the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii (2015-2016, 2024), Columbia Law School (2019), and Yale Law School (2024).

Moderator: Charles Booth, Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law, UHM 

Discussant: Carole Petersen, Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law, UHM

Co-sponsors: Pacific-Asian Legal Studies, International and Comparative Law, Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law, William S. Richardson School of Law, UHM