have established a
socialist-economic system with the common ownership of the means of production as the main element. Politically, we have a socialist political system under the People's Democratic Dictatorship. On the other hand, looking at
the
one
-
the
developmental processes of our society, our socialism in its present stage is not particularly developed or perfected. Under
country two systems', although socialism and
and capitalism will coexist in our country, this will not be able to change overall nature of our society. Because socialism is the main part of this structure of `two systems coexisting'; its existence and development will determine the basic nature and direction
of development of Chinese society. Therefore, Chinese society under `one country
two systems' will in general still be
in the preliminary stage of socialism and the basic nature of society can only be socialist and nothing else.
-
+
J
Laws derive from the superstructure of a given society, and the nature of the society determines the nature of the laws. Since our country has already entered socialist society, although, in developmental terms, it is still in the preliminary stage, it is nonetheless socialist and this basically decides the laws of the present stage that in their basic nature they must be socialist. Under
one country two systems', since the laws of the mainland will make up the main body of Chinese law, from the point of view of its overall composition it too must be of a socialist nature. This is because it is the socialist legal system that occupies the main position and it is used to decide the application in circumstances where the two legal systems with different natures coexist. This sort of legal system is founded on circumstances where socialist common ownership is taken as the main element and reflects the common aspirations and advantages of the whole people. After the SAR is established, the circumstances of our laws will undergo some changes and will have a part added to them that has a capitalist nature. Although the socialist nature of our laws will not change, nonetheless there will be a very small number of national level laws which in their application to Hong Kong may develop relationships with Hong Kong law. When national level laws are applied to Hong Kong they will not change Hong Kong's capitalist nature nor will they change the capitalist nature of Hong Kong law.
B: The Nature of Law in the Hong Kong SAR
The laws enforced in Hong Kong will be the basic law of the Hong Kong SAR and the pre-existing laws of Hong Kong (viz. the common law, the law of equity, regulations, subsidiary law, and customary law
putong fa, hengping fa, tiaoli, fushu lifa, xiguan fa) together with those laws enacted by the legislative authorities of the Hong Kong SAR. These three types of law will make
up the legal system of the Hong Kong SAR which will take as its nucleus the Basic Law. But the Basic Law is also a law enacted by the NPC covering the whole country.
The laws in the Hong Kong SAR will remain capitalist in terms of their overall nature. This is because the Hong Kong SAR will not practice the socialist system or policies but will maintain its previous capitalist system. The legal system is an important component part of the old capitalist system and thus its basic nature cannot be changed. From the point of view of practical application, the law of the Hong Kong SAR will be mainly in order to protect the capitalist economy and political system, to uphold private ownership, and to guarantee the development of the capitalist economy.
Private ownership is the basis of capitalism,