Author
Prof Samuli Seppänen
Organisation/Institution
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Country
HONG KONG (SAR OF CHINA)
Panel
Constitutional and Admin Law
Title
The Drafting of CCP Intraparty Regulations: Between Ideological and Legislative Speech
Abstract
The study of intraparty regulations and their drafting techniques casts light on the complexities of the CCP’s governance project. In the past few years there has been a concerted effort within the CCP to apply legal regulatory techniques to the drafting of intraparty regulations. Some Chinese experts have urged the drafters of intraparty regulations to avoid ambiguous expressions, and to use concise and accurate language so that intraparty regulations can be easily understood, followed and enforced. Other Chinese experts have argued that intraparty regulations should not emulate the drafting techniques of China’s formal state law, at least entirely. Instead, the drafting of intraparty regulations should make use of the special characteristics of the Party’s ideological speech, including its colourful metaphors, evocative colloquialisms and conceptually ambiguous political terms. These experts envision a form of ideological speech, which is normative and even regulatory, but not “legal.” This article argues that the two approaches to the drafting of intraparty regulations correspond with different governance strategies within CCP ideology: rational bureaucratic governance, which is common to all modern organizations, and rule-transcending political leadership, which is unique to the Party itself. While the two genres of speech provide Party leaders two distinct means to perform power, they also create tensions within Party governance.
Biography
Samuli Seppänen is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He holds an S.J.D. degree from Harvard University and an LL.M. degree from the University of Helsinki. At Harvard, he served as a Teaching Fellow at the Kennedy School of Governance and as a coordinator of the Visiting Scholars’ and Researchers’ Colloquium at Harvard Law School. Before his doctoral studies at Harvard he worked as a junior professional officer with the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for South East Asia in New Delhi, India. Samuli’s research focuses on legal and political thought in China and developmental aspects of international law.
