The legal system in China has in the last century a very turbulent evolution.

In China the old Empire was the legal system part of the executive, ie the administration. The administration had to ensure that the political system functioned properly and had to sanction misconduct. Rights of individuals against the state were not foreseen.

With the opening up of China to Western powers has been from the beginning of the 20th Century began, a similar to the European legal system. Between 1929 and 1935 were the "Six codes created, meaning a Civil Code, a Penal Code, criminal and civil laws, as well as commercial and individual administrative acts, but because of war and civil war in the legal practice have been implemented.

After the Communists seized power in 1949, the existing laws, and hence the six codes, except force. In the courts by officers of the Red Army according to the Communist Party ruled. The current guideline has been through political campaigns provided.

At the time of the Cultural Revolution was written legal system in favor of a revolutionary transformation completely repealed.

With the start of the Reformara from 1978, with emphasis on building a legal system worked. As the target was the rule of law promulgated. Thus, the communiqué of the 3rd Plenum of the 11th The CCP Central Committee in 1978 stated: "We need a comprehensive and complete legislation of paramount authority, which is strict, reliable, and no exceptions applied.It was clear that an economic structure was not to think, as long as the local officials and the local authorities for lack of laws on their own could decide arbitrariness. The establishment of a legal system should have the central government in Beijing to the local governments and authorities to strengthen. Nor should the new laws for legal certainty and reduce corruption. The first criminal code was often quite vague and indeterminate, but did in 1979 adopted the Penal Code and the Criminal Law, adopted at the same time a first step away from the total arbitrariness of the criminal violence of the state.Since 1999, Article 5 of the Constitution stipulates that the People's Republic was a government based on laws and practices a "socialist rule of law" was built.

Since the beginning of the lawyers were hardly Reformara, provided the Chinese in the construction of the Act being a strong emphasis on support for European and American institutions. To the structure of the education law to speed, focused initially on the key areas and took over major parts of the legislation supporting partner countries, with only minor amendments. The laws should be later, in the light of experience, continue to be adjusted. The legal reform was a process of incremental created. From the German side, for example, the Max Planck Society, the Society for Technical Cooperation, Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation of the Chinese partner.Germany had on the Chinese side is always a preference towards the former colonial powers and the United States. As a result, similar to essential parts of the right of China to the German law.The German-Chinese dialogue is the rule of law, supported by the justice ministries of both countries, until today, continued.At the beginning, the focus was on the Business, which is already well developed. In 2008 the new Labor Code was adopted. It provides that every worker is a contract of employment must be issued, and that a portion of the insurance contract has to be. Currently, legislation of environmental and consumer protection and social security on the program.

Until the late 70s China had only a few hundred lawyers, and until the late 80s they were all employees of the state. Today in China there are 120,000 independent lawyers, the right recognized in 12,000 companies.