Events

Conference Summary – “One Hundred Years of the Taiwanese Civil Code: Retrospect and Prospect” Key speaker: Professor Wang Tze-Chien, Emeritus Professor at National Taiwan University

Professor Wang Tze-Chien’s conference, One Hundred Years of the Taiwanese Civil Code: Retrospect and Prospect, held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Turin on the 26th of June 2025, offered a profound and wide-ranging reflection on the Taiwanese Civil Code’s centennial journey. Drawing on his distinguished career as a legal scholar, former Justice of the Constitutional Court, and a Professor of civil law, Professor Wang offered participants a detailed historical, doctrinal, and comparative analysis of the Civil Code’s formation, evolution, and contemporary relevance.

The conference, introduced by Prof. Simona Novaretti and by Prof. Lihong Zhang (East University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai), began with a reconstruction of the Code’s intellectual genealogy, from the reception of German and Swiss models via Japan, to its original enactment in Republican China (1929–1931). Professor Wang traced how this early codification, transplanted to Taiwan after 1945, gradually took root and was adapted to Taiwan’s reality through legislative amendments, judicial interpretation, and sustained academic engagement.

A central theme of his analysis was the dynamic role the Civil Code has played in Taiwan’s social and legal transformation from the authoritarian era through the constitutional reforms of the 1980s, and into the present democratic order. Professor Wang emphasised how the Code has served not merely as a legal text, but as a living framework capable of integrating social change, protecting fundamental rights, and promoting the values of liberty, equality, and human dignity.

Particular attention was given to the methodological evolution of legal interpretation in Taiwan, influenced by German legal science, choosing, inter alia, the law of unjustified enrichment as a specific example. Professor Wang outlined how Taiwanese courts and scholars have moved beyond classical textualism, embracing structured argumentation, the concretization of general clauses, and the development of law both within and beyond the Code. This jurisprudential shift was illustrated through the discussion of numerous landmark decisions in the fields of contract law, torts, property, and family law, demonstrating the constitutionalization of private law in Taiwan.

The conference also reflected on the broader comparative implications of Taiwan’s codification experience, paying homage to the scholarship of the late Rodolfo Sacco. Professor Wang positioned the Taiwanese Civil Code as a case study in the successful transplantation and transformation of continental legal thought in East Asia. He concluded with a call for renewed scholarly exchange, particularly between Taiwan and Italian legal academia, to support the future development of comparative codification research and to facilitate the growth of mutual, collaborative learning.
Following his speech, the debate was animated by comments of professors Gianmaria Ajani, Domenico di Micco, Edoardo Ferrante, Simona Novaretti, Enrico Sciandrello, and Lihong Zhang, expressing appreciation for Prof. Wang’s contribution to legal science and for his insights on the theory of interpretation of the Taiwan Civil Code, in the light of the experience of that jurisdiction. Participants expressed strong interest in fostering and strengthening future collaboration, particularly in the fields of comparative law, legal methodology, and the study of codification across jurisdictions. A resounding round of applause concluded the meeting.