3.1 Zhang & Ma
Jingyu Zhang & Qinglin Ma. (2013). Reasonableness and “the Reasonable Person” in the Chinese Context. International Journal of Law, Language & Discourse 3(1), 79-96.
Abstract: Legal argument in English pervasively relies on the term reasonable, which carries with it a framework of evaluation that plays an important part in English discourse. The reasonable person standard plays a central role in law. This paper examines reasonableness and constructs the reasonable person in the Chinese context. A case in point is the role public opinions played in the court’s alteration of a verdict from life-long to a five-year imprisonment for a 23-year-old worker who illegally withdrew 170,000 Chinese yuan with his own debit card from an ATM. Clearly, it is necessary to construct an objective standard of the hypothetical ordinary person. This construction accords with the people-centeredness approach in China’s scientific development concept and its goal in building a harmonious society.
Keywords: reasonableness, reasonable person, rule of law, Chinese civil law
Category: Volume 3
