EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Law 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 208 own understanding of what the fazhi is, through those frames and categories that are familiar to them. The proposed paper identifies and explains these conceptual frames, and categories, proving how their meaning is consistent with the meaning of frames and categories used outside the Party discipline apparatus. Schick-Chen Agnes (University of Vienna) Identifying with“Fazhi”: the Rule of/by Law as a Narrative in China Key words: rule of law, narrative identity, legal profession, Chinese legal traditions, 4th plenum Departing from the presumptions of the “rule of/by law” as a narrative and the narrative as a constituent of identity formation, the paper raises the question of “fazhi” as part of Chinese national, individual and professional identity at the beginning of the 21st century. The relevance of this question derives from the theoretical assumption that the image of the self would translate into the role assumed and enacted by the subject/object of self-/identification. In this sense, the introduction and consolidation of a “Socialist rule of/ by law with Chinese characteristics” within discourses on legal development in the PRC in the late nine- teen nineties can be interpreted as an attempt to make sense of the changes and continuities experienced in the first two decades of legal reform and to thereby define the position China was going to adopt vis-à-vis questions of law and legality. From the perspective of narrative identity, the proposition of a legal rule with political and cultural particularities has to be expected to exert its impact on goals pursued and steps taken both at the national and international level. Nevertheless, the paper claims that the actual operationalization of what is envisaged and targeted in the name of such particularistic rule of/by law depends on the suc- cessful translation of the respective narrative to the individual level, because a personal identification with “fazhi” is needed to incorporate its ideas and principles into the thinking and acting of those involved in its implementation. The paper therefore points to the question of rule of/by law — with or without Socialist or Chinese characteristics — providing a frame of perception, interpretation and identification for people working in the legal field in China, as well as possible implications of disagreements between individual and national narratives.