Law Commons^™

Is It The Beginning Of The Era Of The Rule Of The Constitution? Reinterpreting China's "First Constitutional Case, Shen Kui, Yuping Liu

Washington International Law Journal

The subject of this article is the so-called "first constitutional case" in China. The Qi Yuling case is, in a sense, the very first time since the foundation of the People's Republic of China that constitutional provisions have been directly invoked by the Supreme People's Court in a civil lawsuit to protect a citizen's right to receive education, one of the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution. The Qi Yuling case, therefore, has given rise to much discussion on issues of judicial interpretation of the Constitution and the Constitution's application in the private domain, as well as the institution of …