Progress, Continuity, and Constitutional Amendment
Envisaging Legitimacy in the pre-Global South's Quest for Modernity in China and Taiwan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21832850 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ming‐sung Kuo (0000-0001-8400-0451, University of Warwick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 436-456 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Journal of Comparative Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1932-0205 • E-ISSN: 2194-6078 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/asjcl.2024.17 |
| OpenAlex | W4405829841 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This article compares constitutional amendments in China and Taiwan to explore the long shadow cast by the Chinese encounter with ‘modernity’ on their divergent constitutional roads. It observes that in China, preambular changes have been the characteristic of the amendments to the 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of China , while the rule-conformity feature of Taiwan's multiple rounds of constitutional revision indicates that the preservation of the formal identity of the 1946 Constitution of the Republic of China is central to Taiwan's constitutional transformation. The article argues that the prominence of the preamble in China's constitutional amendments reflects the programmatic character of its socialist constitution, which is seen as an instrument for progress and emancipation through revolutionary forces. In contrast, Taiwan's rigorous observance of amendment rules underscores the pivotal role of legality in its constitutional development. Progress and continuity underlie the respective necessary legitimating conditions for constitutional amendment in China and Taiwan. Tracing the revolution-progress and the legality-continuity nexuses to the Chinese quest for liberation from Western imperialism, this article suggests that modernity guides both China and Taiwan in maintaining the legitimacy of their respective constitutions. China's path towards modernity tells a story of constitutional struggle in the prehistory of the Global South
China · Constitutional amendment · Legitimacy · Modernity · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Law
| Highly cited | No |
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