Also A “Rule of Law”: The Guomindang’s Lawmaking and the Struggle for Constitutional Integrity in 1930s China

Abstract: In 1931, the Nationalist Party (Guomindang; GMD) government of China implemented the Emergency Punishment Act, which imposed severe penalties on speech challenging its authority. This article examines GMD lawmakers’ deliberations in creating the act and its application in the 1933 trial of Chen Duxiu. The trial highlighted the tension between the GMD’s effort to uphold its authority by promoting the Nationalist revolution and the constitutional discourse shared by many political elites. Chen’s lawyer, Zhang Shizhao, defended him by invoking the free-speech clause of the Provisional Constitution of 1931. This article demonstrates that lawmaking was intended to institutionalize revolutionary zeal and that it shaped the judicial process to unify the party under a singular revolutionary vision. It also details the interplay between legal discourse and GMD power structures, showing how the lawmakers’ original plan for the partification ( danghua ) of jurisdiction was implemented and distorted in the judicial process. Ultimately, it argues, this process facilitated Chiang Kai-shek’s consolidation of power.