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(NEW ORLEANS, LA – JUNE 5, 2019) A better understanding of Chinese legal history will help to shed light on one of world’s most important economies, says a key law professor from the �������� College of Law. Chunlin Leonhard, Léon Sarpy Distinguished Professor of Law, has won a Fulbright scholarship award — a top international award in higher education — for her research project in China for the 2019-2020 academic year.

During her year abroad, Professor Leonhard will research ancient Chinese dynastic contract law issues, focusing on the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 CE) or earlier. She will be collaborating with the Institute of Legal History, China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.

Professor Leonhard hopes to introduce the ancient and rich Chinese legal traditions to the English-speaking legal world through her research project. In correcting misperceptions, she aims to improve Western understanding of Chinese commercial law – and thus one of the world’s largest economies.

“If you want to really understand a country and a country’s legal system, it’s important to understand its past,” said Leonhard, who said a better understanding of Chinese contract law is crucial to the West — because commercial law is the body of law that governs economic relationships. 
In China, the Tang dynasty is considered the Golden area of the Chinese dynasties, which ended in the 20th century with the Quing dynasty in 1911, and was followed by a turbulent period of communism, internal strife, Japanese invasion and Civil War.

The first complete legal code – the Tang code – contained a lot of criminal penalties, and so Westerners tend to believe that China had a well-developed criminal law system, Leonhard said. They also believe that China has a well-developed administrative legal system. But most Westerners are only familiar with Chinese contract law enacted in 1999 — and thus they have the perception that China did not have a very well-developed commercial legal system.

“I actually disagree with that. Because of discontinuity, a communist ban on private economic activity until the 1980s, language barriers, and other factors, people tend to focus only on what the law is today, or since the Communist Party took over,” Leonhard said. “It’s a pretty glaring blank we have right now considering the importance of the Chinese economy to the world.”

The Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers awards around the world for American legal scholars to advance the study and use of law as a cornerstone for building mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries.