...punishment rather than adjudication. Such a penal emphasis, as is pointed out by Bodde and Morris, meant that matters of a civil nature were either ignored by it [law] entirely (for example, contract), or were given only limited treatment within its penal format...

...from that in the West. The written law of premodern China was overwhelmingly penal in character. This meant that: matters of a civil nature were either...example, property rights, inheritance, marriage). The law was only secondarily interested in defending the rights especially the economic rights - of...

...it produced a large and intellectually impressive body of codified law. The penal emphasis of such law, for example, meant that matters of a civil nature were either ignored by it entirely (eg, contracts), or were given only limited treatment within its penal format (eg, property rights,...